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With only 4 changes to the side this week following late withdrawals of a number of players the team was quite hopeful of first blood against "The Craigy Red Sox", or "The Vikings" as this team are sometimes known, for the first of three scheduled encounters this season.

Eddie Wilson was promoted back to the 5s and with restored faith, we expected great things from him and on the pitch again he did not disappoint. However, he seems to have learnt some strange things on his recent absence to the 4s where Vaseline appears very popular with some, as in the changing room he started to slap the stuff on all over his face. It took closer inspection to determine exactly what the globule hanging from his chin was. Once finally confirmed as being his favoured petroleum jelly, it raised a number of suggestions as to what could be the likely cause of the chaffing of skin that he had been trying to prevent.

Right from the beginning it was clear the way the game was going to be played, as the Malone pack which was superior to ours in both size and years of experience, battered away at us continuously, dealing somewhat ruthlessly with players in the loose. The 5s held firm but after sustaining pressure for so long, eventually could not hold out as Malone crashed over for an unconverted score.

Getting straight back into action we really piled on the pressure and for the rest of the first half it was too close to call who would be the eventual winners. It was quite a bruising encounter and following a series of plays, where there appeared no way through, we even resorted to an attempted drop goal. Not that we have ever scored a DG that I can remember but the defence from both sides left us looking to do something different. Indeed we even opted for penalties at goal, of which Marcus slotted one over after a previous effort that can only politely be described as "getting his eye in".

The 5s again kept up the pressure that led to a set piece from which the pack duly delivered the ball to the backs, who from a rather scant repertoire, had called "a move"! With a repeat of last week's try Marcus timed his angled run into the line brilliantly, cutting through the Malone midfield who could not even lay a finger on him. Not able to recognise pure quality as they collided with each other, they were left claiming a forward pass. My a**e!!! Marcus finished off this perfectly executed play by scoring beneath the posts. Next week we may even try out our other "move".

Marcus converted his own try that over the three games has seen our kicking stats rise from 25% to 38%, and now to 66%. Not a bad trend but if he actually starts practising his kicking these stats could continue to rise even further.

I have never seen a Malone side lie down and true to form their pressure resulted in an unconverted score which came disappointingly just before the break. However, at halftime the mood was really upbeat and with the score at only 12-10 against it was felt the game was there for the taking.

After 10 minutes of the second half Malone had found their kicking boots and capitalised on our mistakes with a couple of penalties. Time after time they piled on the pressure and even though we had a number of efforts that came close to producing scores, the cracks started to appear in our defence. It's not that our fitness was left wanting that did it, but rather the Malone 3s are bigger and their physical style combined with their years of experience wore down our ability to keep taking such a pounding. Mind you, a bit more fitness would not have hurt. With about 10 minutes to go they scored a converted try having stretched our line and providing the support players to finish off. Our players had started to look a bit whacked and Malone soon scored a final runaway try.

There was great difficulty actually determining the man of the match this week because everybody played well and gave their all. Our back row and centres all featured strongly in the reckoning, making their tackles and surging runs, and never letting up until the final whistle. Following the game Wally Weatherup was left wondering if their big Johnny Adair look alike had something in for him. Every time he got the ball (which was a lot) he seemed to make a beeline straight for Wally. Never missing a tackle all day, a very battered and bruised Wally was not only awarded the M.O.M. honour but representation is being made to Kilbane to see if he could get recognition in that "Man of Steel" thing.

The Dick of Day award was equally hard to decide as none of our players had a bad game or did anything outrageous. However, the Malone 2nd Row who had battled all day with Cooper, both on and off the ball, and had thrown his weight about throughout the game, decided during a line out to take Cooper out whilst he was in the air. All 6ft 5" of Cooper landed unceremoniously to the deck following a dangerous challenge. Wary of the referee who did not look pleased at all and ready for producing a yellow card, the offending player put on the most ridiculous look of innocence and pleaded "I just tripped and fell over, ref". Dick of the Day!

The final score at 32-10 was somewhat flattering to Malone, as our boys stuck to the task and contested well until just before the end. However, Malone was the better team and did deserve to win the match. In fact it is clear that they will be challenging for the league title this year and will again provide very tough opposition for us in the first round of their defence of the Foster Cup. Malone 3s are the team to beat this year and we must raise our own standard above what we saw from them on Saturday.

There were two new players to the 5s this week. Big Tom Ferran at prop, playing only his third game of rugby, and new club debutante Chris Davis at scrum half. Both players performed very well and are great assets for Harlequins.
Many thanks to Ricky Finlay for providing our traditionally massive support, running the line and tending to water squirting duties.

Team: 1. Mark McCartney, 2. Stephen Uprichard, 3. Tom Ferran, 4. Richard Cooper, 5. Ralph Magee, 6. Eddie Wilson, 7. Stephen Weatherup, 8. Chick Chalmers, 9. Chris Davis, 10. Roger Gilpin, 11. Barry Dowling, 12. Rob Calvert, 13. Andrew Leitch, 14. Ally McCulloch, 15. Marcus Cummings.

Man of the Match: Stephen Weatherup

Dick of the Day: Malone's No. 4

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