Rugby --- Home

Saturday morning, once the strapping has been applied, the stretching done and the legendary Hangzhou Haka has been completed, its time to play rugby. The game starts at a fast pace with both sides touching the ball early on; some ferocious tackling from the Tigers confirms to the Harlequins that they came to play rugby.

In an even first 5 minutes the Harlequins dominate field position with some strong rucking from the forwards and a combination of dazzling footwork and powerful running among the backs, the Harlequins charge towards the tigers line lead by the ever inspiring fly half Rich ‘I am too sexy’ Pease.

With the ball now tentatively close to the tigers line and the scores still locked at 0-0 the forwards decide to power toward the try line with their perseverance paying off with Gean scoring the first of his 3 tries to break the dead lock. From the kick of some more slick handling from the backs and some great running by both Kongo and Henry put the Harlequins in the opposition half once more and again the forwards used there size advantage to good effect to charge over with Mike ‘don’t worry I am sober’ Reyes going over. The last try of a great first quarter came from Ryan “I trained as a ballet dancer’ Leeke.

Some more powerful running and a few high tackles later its time for a change in personnel for both teams. The hot spring day really is taking an effect and shows fitness to be an apparent chink in the harlequins armour. The new players start off where the previous players left it with some quick thinking from our H and Rich down the blindside Tony ‘I am scared of the cold’ Poole goes in for a debut try.

Great defence from the Harlequins is finally undone in the second quarter when strong running from the Tigers centre and a few missed tackles leads to the first and much deserved Tigers try. From the kick off it is right back to business for the Harlequins with good hands from Danny ‘the bugger’ Young and powerful running from Andy carving more gaps and tries for the home side.

After half time the home side gave debuts to a number of players who showed some good promise and an excellent attitude as they shared a very even opening 10 minutes with the highlight a brilliant 60 metre try by the Tigers winger. For the last 10 minutes the Harlequins gave there starting 10 more time together with a few more tries coming, the last one a well deserved try for the inspirational Captain Kongo taking a sweet pass from Rich to power his way over for the last try of the game.

On the whole the score does not reflect the physicality of the game and much credited must be given to a Nantong Tigers team who never stopped trying and played for the full 60 minutes. This was a great game for the spectators to watch with some great tries by both teams. Only positives can be taken by both trams as they go forward and we look forward to any future meetings.

Words about the Harlequins - A great performance by everyone involved with every player standing up and showing he deserves to be associated with the Harlequins. A special mention to the new boys who have come down and are really adapting to the game and applying themselves effectively. A combination of strong forward play and some majestic play from the backs lead to a one sided score line today, but with Xiamen to come in 2 weeks there is no room for complacency and everyone needs to try hard and pay their hearts out to put themselves forward for a playing shirt in Xiamen.

A special thank you to Nantong Tigers for coming to Hangzhou to play, to all spectators for coming to watch, to Zhejiang University (浙江大学) for allowing us to play on a great pitch and finally to Herve for standing in as referee at such short notice. A great game and lets look forward to the next test.