London Irish were truly out Paiced by Harlequins last weekend in Reading. Not a pretty match, and maybe Quins should have made much more of their advantage but Quins did what they had to do and came away with a 9-14 win and four precious league points. London Irish garnered a precious losing bonus point that maintained their second place in the league. I said last week Harlequins have to win their next two matches in order to stay in touch, so it was mission accomplished for phase one, so we now look to complete phase two. This is a big match for Quins, as in fifth place they 10 points off the top although they have a game in hand, a win on Saturday would reduce that gap to touching distance, but Gloucester already have their points in the bank.

Quins have re established their Premiership credentials, for a top six or even top four positions. The top of the table, positions one to six is more congested that the A316 on match day,  the top two have played 14 games, three teams have played 13 matches and Bath are lurking in 4^th with 12 games played, who coincidentally host London Irish on Saturday.  This is a key game for Harlequins and they need to win to maintain their momentum, with Saracens (away at Newcastle) and Leicester (home to Worcester) likely to record wins this weekend. With a number of away games on the horizon, Quins need to make this home game count, with four points in the bag.

There is an expectant buzz from both sets of supporters as they look forward to this weekend’s mouth watering encounter. The last three Harlequins v Gloucester games both home and away have been absolutely cracking games and this week’s promises to be the same. In recent years the thought of a Quins win at Kingsholm was unthinkable but times have changed. Back in September Quins narrowly lost 24-20.Last Season Quins were squeezed 27-25 a Kingsholm but won 30-25 in a classic clash last March at The Stoop. Both sides are almost up to full strength, but without their England 6 nations’ players, and will be equally matched. The Gloucester squad is likely to include recently signed Carlos Spencer from Northampton, who seemed to inspire the home side revive their fortunes and come back to beat Sale at Kingsholm last weekend. After the match Dean Ryan said “Carlos has looked sharp for a week, he has come in to change the dynamics and he has done that. At the same time he has lifted people.”

So the prospect of a great game is in place with a result hard to call, but with head and heart have to go with Quins but a losing bonus point for the visitors, to enable them to remain on top would be the sensible outcome. Certainly the results from the next couple of games will determine the rest of our season.

Come on You Quins!

STOP PRESS:

Harlequins:
1 Ceri Jones, 2. Gary Botha, 3 Mike Ross, 4 Ollie Kohn, 5 George Robson, 6 Chris Robshaw, 7 Will Skinner (capt.), 8 Tom Guest, 9 Andy Gommarsall, 10 Nick Evans, 11 Tom Williams, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 14 David Strettle, 15 Mike Brown
Replacements: 16 Aston Croall, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Jim Evans, 19 Neil McMillan, 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Chris Malone, 22 Ugo Monye

Gloucester:
1. Wood, 2. Titterrell, 3. Somerville, 4. Bortolami, 5. Brown, 6. Narraway, 7. Hazell, 8. Delve (capt.), 9. Lawson, 10. Spencer, 11. Sharples, 12. Barkley, 13. Trinder, 14. Simpson-Daniel, 15. Balshaw
Replacements: 16. Foster, 17. Allen, 18. Lamb, 19. Eustace, 20. Satala, 21. Dickinson, 22. Azam

Other fixtures this weekend include;

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