My Day

Yesterday was my first Quins Superleague match this year. I’d seen the Skolars & Melbourne games, both of which were too one-sided to really make any judgement as to whether we were back on track after the dismal final three months of last season.

I’m normally fairly positive and optimistic about our chances of winning games or ending a losing streak, but I went away feeling utterly deflated not just with our second half collapse but with our witless and unimaginative play during the long period when we were well on top. I can only recall Salford getting near our line twice in the first half, one of which resulted in their taking the lead completely against the run of play. We were camped closed to their line for long periods but seemed to be playing as if we had to score under the posts. There seemed to be little attempt to use the full width of the pitch. On more than one occasion we began a set of six not much more than ten yards from the line and a succession of players fruitlessly attempted to barge through a wall of defenders before we kicked on the last tackle.

Having finally got our noses in front we capitalised on a sin-binning with two further converted tries to go 18-4 up. At this point Salford looked almost gone. If we’d just held that margin for another five or ten minutes I think we’d have been home and dry, but within two minutes or so we conceded possession cheaply on the halfway line leading to a Salford try and suddenly they found the confidence and belief that they could go on to win. When they pulled it back to 18-16 with just under ten minutes to go it seemed only one team was likely to win, and it wasn’t us. We were throwing the ball around deep in our own half like it was a hand grenade. There was no composure, no direction, no leadership. At one point a bloke near me shouted in desperation: “Stop panicking!” We seemed to be in full-on Corporal Jones mode. What were our more experienced players doing at this point? Surely the likes of Orr, Randall, Williamson, Temata, Ward, Melling should be capable of glavanising the younger players to stop the wheels falling off so alarmingly like this? At least in the first half we looked like we had a strategy, albeit a rather dull and uninspiring one; now we suddenly looked clueless. By contrast a Salford team that had lost every game this year were prepared to get the ball wide with quick passing and offloading and use a bit of flair and imagination. It was humiliating to see them show us how to do it in this way, condemning us to replace them at the foot of the table in the process. The only time we showed similar attacking flair was in scoring our irrelevant final try with just a few seconds left on the clock. I went away feeling that our opponents had wanted the win more badly than our team.

I’ve never felt less enthusiastic about supporting Quins and I’ve never enjoyed watching the games less than over the second half of last season and up to now. Regardless of injuries, financial constraints, trying to use more local lads rather than Aussies etc., our performance was just so bloody dull and uninspiring against opponents who were there for the taking. A lot of supporters will accept dull attritional performances if they lead to an improvement in results, but when you’re losing most games it’s just awful to watch. I wish we could at least try to play some entertaining rugby in future even if we can’t win. I haven’t seen a crowd figure for yesterday but it must have been under 3,000 and there’s no way we’re likely to attract new support playing like that.