Fixture

Saturday December 1^st 2018

Maesteg Quins 25 – 20 UWIC

WRU Championship

It is often said: “Winners write history,” or in the case of the Battle of Hastings embroider it. How the Quins can write as winners of this match is both obvious, if you know the players and a complete mystery, if you saw the game.

Clearly the month between the trip to Pontypool and this, the Quins’ next match told. However, the two comebacks in this single game made for an enthralling contest and a heart-warming home display of refusal to accept defeat.

Third place Cardiff Metropolitan made fourteen changes to the team who battled so well against league leaders Pontypool, to face a Quins team second from bottom.

Home support saw Lewis Tutt strut out at the head of the team to mark his impressive achievement of making 250 appearances in the coal black and blood red.  Alternatively, looming lock Matthew Davies made his 1^st XV debut.

Piling early pressure on the young Archers. Momentum was broken when a regulation pass was intercepted by visiting Russell Bennett. Racing eighty yards, the out-half touchdown under the posts and converted.

During a twenty phases period of play, Quins were penalised for a high tackle and Bennett kicked the goal.

A response was needed and the Quins scrum allowed them to achieve this. Turning the screw a series of penalties were gleaned. The Students then transgressed at a ruck and Jakob Williams sped off. Dropped short of the line, it had to be the player celebrating his long-service milestone who burrowed over, as Lewis Tutt put the Quins on the scoreboard. Owen Howe converted.

Howe levelled from fifty yards after the Quins secured another scrum penalty, as they slowly began to take the upper hand. At this point the hosts could have taken the game away from the academics, but sloppy play up front let the visitors off the hook. Despite getting into promising positions, execution was not of the necessary standard. A couple of driving mauls and one particular five-yards scrum that saw the ball kicked back into the grateful Student’s side of the set piece as the Quins were advancing, were examples of this sloppiness.

To make matters worse, Bennett put his team back into the lead with a penalty just before the break.

A second fifty yards goal from Howe levelled the scores. Again there were glimpses of the Quins gaining ascendancy, only for ‘ring-rusty’ inaccuracy to fail the hosts. It was critical for the Quins, once they got into promising positions, to make them tell.

‘Met’ are exceedingly well drilled and talented. Of course, their stern defence also held the Quins out. They were also more comfortable on the ball, due to their multiple weekly training sessions and game time together over the past month. Putting together another fine display of continuity play in poor conditions, hooker Corey Lewis surged over at the posts and Bennett converted.

Taking everything into account and entering the final quarter, overturning the visitors lead appeared unlikely. At Hastings in 1066 the Normans were losing but turned the tide in their favour. In 2018 the Quins were desperate to put right the wrongs of the seasonal opener at Cyncoed, yet determination was not enough, things had to click together.

Owen Howe’s clearances were enough to bring even the hardest-nosed forward to tears. Whether tears of joy or despair depended on who you were playing for.

Home combination play began to gel and the sloppiness dissipated. It was pleasing to see Ben Davies cope very well in conditions that really weren’t made for him. Rhodri Davies and Tadgh McGuckin worked well defensively against potent opposition.

Yet it was up front where this particular contest was at its most potent and compelling. Line-outs were an evenly contested tussle. The end result of the Quins impact at the scrum often resembled the carnage of a Quentin Tarrantino film. The breakdown battle was a ‘blue-chip’ contest between the back-rows. It was the Quins who just edged this area of play.Mike Owen and skipper Steve Williams made vital yards in tough conditions and against stern tackling.

A huge Howe clearance sent the Quins eighty yards upfield. A maul and series of drives were repelled by the Archers. Kieran Griffiths carried strongly and when he had sucked in more than his quota of tacklers, Matthew Davies found the space to force his way over at the corner to mark his debut with a try. Howe gave his conversion shot enough clout to reach the posts and the kick spliced the uprights to level the scores.

It was more of the same with fifteen minutes remaining. It seemed the Quins weight advantage had taken its toll on the Students. A huge boot, line-out, scrum and phase play ensemble brought the crowd alive and when Jay Ronan made it over the line for his team to take the lead for the first time, the roar was deafening.

The missed conversion gave the Students a chance to take the spoils. They had two chances but lost one through a little inaccuracy and the second saw Jay Ronan steal possession at an attempted driving maul deep inside the home twenty-five.

Short pops and drives saw out the final minutes in the Met’s half, for a landmark Quins win against a Championship leading light. Met will lose a few more fixtures with this team, in this weather, as their focus moves from Championship to BUCS, but if these four points are the difference between staying put and relegation, the win will be embroidered into the rich tapestry of Quins’ history.