Although it was a decisive scoreline, it was a hard fought win as Rotherham battled throughout and competed particularly well in the set-piece where in the first half they caused us one or two problems. However, tries from Gavin Duffy (two), Ceri Jones (two), Andy Dunne and Ugo Monye saw us pick up the win and the bonus point from a good evenings work.

The win did come at a cost though. A number of players picked up knocks but all of them will be fit for the second leg of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup semi-final against Connacht this weekend. Not so lucky is Roy Winters, who underwent a shoulder operation on Monday and will miss the rest of the season. Roy has been struggling with an unstable shoulder for some time, and we had hoped to get him through until the end of the season but that has proved to be impossible.

Also struggling this week is Tani Fuga who has an ankle injury and as you may now know he was suspended yesterday at an ERC citing hearing for seven weeks following a stamping incident against Connacht in the first leg. Tani pleaded guilty at the hearing to the stamping offence, although we were somewhat taken by surprise and disappointed, at the fact that Connacht accused him of stamping on their players head, which he clearly did not and the disciplinary committee agreed with this. We will consider appealing against the length of the suspension once we have received the committee's report.

We travel to Galway on Saturday morning taking with us a nine point lead from the first leg, knowing full well that we will face a determined and talented Connacht side on their home ground, and no doubt some very vociferous and partisan support.

As we said before the first leg, Connacht are a very good side who have beaten Beziers, Pau and Narbonne to reach this stage of the competition. They have a massive pack with Damien Browne outstanding against us two weeks ago, and In Bernard Jackman a player who is now playing some of the best rugby of his life since returning to Ireland after finishing playing in the Zurich Premiership with Sale.

The backs are well orchestrated by Eric Elwood at fly half and the centres of Mark McHugh and Daren Yapp both off load in the contact area very well to create space for the wings and full back Matt Mostyn.

Back from injury this week for us will be Paul Burke, Mel Deane, Pat Sanderson and James Hayter.

On Tuesday night the Second XV travel to Northampton to face the Saints in the second Leg of the Zurich A final taking with them a 13 point advantage. Kick-off is 7.45pm and it would be tremendous to see a large number of Quins supporters there to see the team in action.

We know that the game on Sunday will be very tight, probably not being decided until the final ten minutes, and we must make sure that we make every use of the nine point advantage that we take with us, and the best way to do that is to look to win the game.

I look forward to seeing all of you who are travelling to Galway on Sunday.