In a game best described as a ‘Good old ding dong’, Quintin walked away 31-28 winners.
Starting at an exhilarating pace through marauding forward charges orchestrated by debutant Scott Davidson, Quintin worked the ball phase by phase up the pitch, setting up Scott the platform to slip between Japanese’s ruck defence to put down the first score of then game, converted by Mr Beige himself, Joe Thornton.
This firm start was continued as Quintin found themselves once again at London Japanese’s try line. In a moment of magic which saw one of our Kiwi imports, lock Scottie Mathieson, throw a slick between the legs pass to Cam Urquhart to dot down in the corner and raise the score to 12-0.
Unfortunately, this fast-paced start started to wane and London Japanese managed to throw the ball wide to their lightning backs scoring three times in quick succession, converting all three and bringing the half time score to 12-21.
The speed of London Japanese’s backs again punished Quintin straight form the second half kick-off, giving them a three-score lead. However, Quintin dug deep and with the aid of fresh legs from the bench from another Kiwi import and debutant David McClelland went crashing over for a well earned try. The larger than normal 22-man squad of Quintin bolstered by the young legs from London South Bank Uni battled ferociously to score again. However, even with – to the surprise of even the referee – a 34 phase attack they couldn’t walk away with any more points and Japanese broke sent us back to our own half through a clearance.
Quintin continued to maintain the lion share of possession and soon found themselves in the opposition ’22 again, this time they did earn the points with ex skipper Luke Saxton-Rhind finding his way over the line.
With the clock against them, the score at 24-28, Quintin were awarded another of the 17 penalties that London Japanese’s had accumulated through the game, resulting in their second yellow. This gave Quintin the gap they needed and David McClelland went crashing over for his second of the game and the match winning try, cementing his award for Motm. Despite the distracting celebrations behind him Joe slotted the conversion, finalising the score at 31-28.
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