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London Irish Home- Europe Returns


By Quins4life
April 6 2016

Well that was a lot better wasn’t it? Whilst there is still lots to improve on, you cannot be too unhappy with a 6-try victory against a Newcastle side battling for their lives at the bottom of the table. In the first half, it was a story of Quins taking their chances well, and defending just as well against a Newcastle side which came to the Stoop to play and I thought that was some of best attacking rugby played by a Newcastle side at the Stoop in a long time, so fair play to them. Then in second half, an early Marchant try, who once again impressed me, secured a bonus point and took our lead to 28-6 and we looked comfortable

 However comfortable isn’t the Quins way and Newcastle fought back with 3 tries to make it 28-25 and the way we suddenly dropped was very concerning, bringing back memories of the Bath game a few weeks ago. Despite this, we managed to go up another gear again and pulled away once more with tries from the Visser and the returning Yarde, both of whom looked sharp and dangerous whenever they got the ball. So a job well done, 3 more of those and you never know. We can dream!!! 

But for now, we turn our attentions away from domestic matters and focus on our European ambitions, which, for now, seem like our only realistic hope of silverware this season. Whilst this is certainly not the competition we would like to be in, European silverware is incredibly difficult to win and how I would love the team to win it again for a record fourth time. We managed to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition relatively easily, despite a last round thrashing at the hands of Montpellier, but we still managed to secure our position as the top seed. Being top seed meant we played one of the runners up of the groups and this paired us with our old rivals, London Irish. Irish managed to scrap through to the knockout stages after finishing ahead of Edinburgh on points difference, however if you ask most Irish fans if they would have preferred to miss out on this match, they would probably say yes. It is fair to say this is a distraction to a London Irish side which, quite simply, has more important things to worry about in the form of survival in the Premiership. Whilst fellow relegation scrapers Newcastle have a refreshing week off, Irish have this game to play before their incredibly important clash at Kingston Park against Newcastle the following week.

I am kind of surprised London Irish are struggling as much as they are this season as I was impressed with their recruitment during the previous summer and expected them to be the dark horses to break back into the top 6. But it has obviously not clicked as well as they would have liked, and perhaps the introduction of so many new players and coaching staff has unbalanced the squad. Though you cannot underestimate the loss of Andy Goode (who then came back to play for their rivals Newcastle where you saw his influence, I would be fuming at this…) to retirement right before the start of the season, leaving them short at fly half. I am unsure how London Irish and head coach Tom Coventry will approach this game as this game could prove to be a catalyst for the rest of the season but equally could be seen as an unwanted distraction, especially with Newcastle having the weekend off to recover and prepare for the next week. I do expect London Irish to rotate their squad and giving a rest to some of their key men, especially as they already have a growing injury list. 

Maitland, Fowlie, Hearn, Williams, Fenby; Tonks, Steele; Court, Paice, Aulika, Sinclair, Symons, Narraway (capt), Cowan, Treviranus. 

They played they team above in their loss to Sale last weekend. I doubt we will see that team out again and I think they will make at least 6/7 changes, resting key men like Maitland, Narraway, Symons etc. 

Team Selection 
With Irish likely to rotate their side for the game on Saturday, there could be a bit of temptation to also rotate a little in order to give our some of internationals a rest and prepare for a big game against Sarries the weekend after. However, I do not want us taking any chances and I expect us to put out the strongest side we can, which basically means the same team as last weekend. However, potential injuries to Horwill and Easter may mean we have to change it up a little. If Horwill is fit, he starts, if not Twomey will come in and replace him, but I would drop Easter to the bench whatever and shift Clifford to 8 and play Wallace at 7 to add some real dynamism to our pack. I would also start Ward at hooker instead of Gray, despite the latter playing better last weekend as I am still not convinced his security at the set piece outweighs the all-round ability of Ward. I would stick with Sinckler and Collier rotating this weekend, leaving Jones for the Wembley clash. I actually think Sinckler is playing his best rugby for a while at the moment and could be a late consideration for the England tour to Australia this summer if his form continues. We may be without Marler if he gets a ban from World Rugby, but who knows. Lambert obviously comes in if he does receive a ban. In the backline, same again unless Lowe is fit which could mean that Marchant drops to the bench. However why change it when he is playing well and finally giving us a viable option when Lowe is injured. Also Yarde returning last weekend was a great boost and he looked like he was never injured and slotted in seamlessly. 

My team to play Irish; Marler (Lambert), Ward, Sinckler, Horwill (Twomey), Merrick, Robshaw, Wallace, Clifford; Care (c), Botica, Visser, Roberts, Marchant, Yarde, Brown. 

Well this match surely has a Quins win written all over it? Looking back to when we played them at the Stoop earlier in the season we ran out comfortable winners, winning 38-7. They never really threatened us and we did not really have to come out of 2nd gear. I never like going into game too confident but I feel if we were to lose this game then there would have to be serious questions asked of the team and the coaching staff, and O’Shea might as well pack his bags and leave right after the game. They have been telling us all season how important this trophy is to the team and they want to win it so I want to see it. Whilst we were better last weekend against Newcastle, we know we can get better both in attack and defence. Most importantly, I really want us to show the defensive grit and determination which we showed earlier in the season and really put the London Irish under immense pressure. We definitely have to firepower in attack to cause Irish all sorts of issues but we need to re-establish our defence as we have been woeful in recent weeks. It would be nice to see a good 70-80 minute performance from the team in term of this, instead of the 20-30 minutes blips we have been having in recent week. 

Also a good solid win brings confidence and momentum to the side and I know a lot of people have written off our chances of finishing in the top 4, but I still believe 3 more wins could get us there as well as giving us a good platform to charge for the Challenge Cup. But back to this game and we should be looking to win comfortably. At the same time as our game is the match between Grenoble and Connacht and we play the winner of this match in the semis. We should all pray for a Grenoble win as it would mean we would play at home in the semi-final instead of having to go to Connacht and play the team currently sitting on top of the Pro12. That would not be ideal. Also, this could be our second last home match of the season if that doesn’t happen, so let’s all get down and create a good atmosphere for the team. I am feeling confident and looking forward to a good showing from Quins. 

My prediction; Quins 34 London Irish 6 


PS- Just a reminder to the fools like me that this is a 8.05pm kick off on Saturday evening!. Due to the lateness of kick off I presumed it was Friday... that would have been awkward, who knew evening kick offs on Saturday existed!

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London Irish Home- Europe Returns
Discussion started by ComeAllWithin.co.uk , 06/04/2016 21:45
ComeAllWithin.co.uk
06/04/2016 21:45
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InsertQuinsPunHere
07/04/2016 08:57
Nice preview, thanks!

I don't want them to score any points at all... if they rest their key players and we go all out, we should prove our worth by ruthlessly nilling them.

Banstead Quin
07/04/2016 08:58
Good preview Q4L, you've picked out all of the major points.

Can't argue with your match day squad, we have to win this and keep the intensity up for 70 minutes minimum. If we get a good lead, then take a few off at 60 minutes to get a rest before Wembley.

If we can get 3 tries in the first 15 minutes, I can see us nilling an understrength Not Not's side and we should be looking to do that. I fancy Visser and Yarde to fill their boots in this one.

If Irish do play a strong side then fair play, it's a hell of a gamble but I'd still fancy us to put them away.

I can see us putting on 50 points if we play for the majority of the game.

Let's hope so.....

Monte
07/04/2016 11:43
It would just be nice to play a full 80 mins and to win at the end! Thank you for preview a good read.

Dave L
07/04/2016 16:11
Play for 80 mins and get the win is all I ask. No complacency! There's very little pressure on Irish either way as their big match will be next week so we need to be up for it and put in a proper performance.

SiBolton
07/04/2016 16:40
I read Conor's comments today about the sympathy and love he has for Not Not's , just hope we don't show them any on Saturday night


And would be great if Grenoble could get a win, but I suspect a trip to Galway will be on the cards if we get the win...still not a bad away day

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