So Act 1 of the Premiership comes to a close, after just five games in four weeks. Quins will look back on these four weeks and think of what might have been. Despite lying in fourth place in the Premiership with three wins out of five, with two matches resulting in four try bonus points, this has been an expensive few weeks for the Club. The injury to star signing Nick Evans in the opening match against Saracens not only damaged the fly half, but also contributed to the two defeats, no matter how close they were, away at Gloucester and home to London Irish. It can be argued that had Evans not been injured, Quins would now be sitting on top of the Premiership. Indeed the match against Worcester last night exposed again that Quins are formidable.

Three tries in a space of five minutes and a bonus point before the interval, but this appears  to be too much too soon as they start  to go to pieces in the second half when trying to defend their lead. With Strettle picking up another injury to his problem foot, it looks as if the Premiership break has arrived just in time. I m sure that it is because of the nature of those two defeats  but my “Quins Glass” is currently half empty rather than half full at the moment.  That said Harlequins did play some impressive rugby as they pushed Worcester to their fourth defeat of the season, despite grabbing an early lead through a drop goal. Quins needed a good win to claw themselves back up the table and as Richards commented after the match “To come here and take five points is a big 'ask'. I don't think there are many sides that have done that, but "I am a little bit disappointed we didn't capitalise on our first-half performance, but we got the result we wanted."

Two Cup competitions now take the Rugby stage as one domestic and one European competition are played over the next few weeks. The EDF Anglo Welsh Cup is scheduled for the next two matches, followed by the Heineken Cup which kicks off in two weeks time, which see Quins, return to Wales to meet The Scarlets. (Llanelli)

Quins are in the same Anglo Welsh pool as last year and will face the two teams that they have most recently played in the Premiership and at the same venues; London Irish (at home) and Away to Worcester in the later rounds of the competition. Despite beating Irish in a dour, but close scoring game, Quins were woeful in this competition last year, which signalled the start of a period very poor form over the  autumn months running up to Christmas. After what had been a promising start to their Premiership campaign. Whilst it has become clear in recent years that the Premiership Clubs do rate this competition as highly as their “Magners” colleagues, it is an opportunity to take stock and try out different combinations and perhaps rest some weary limbs, particularly after a couple of punishing games, and this is clearly demonstrated when the sides were announced earlier today.

Congratulations to Andy Gomarsall who captains the side on Sunday, and to those Quins players who have their first starts to the season. For completeness The Quins team is

1 Aston Croall,2 Tani Fuga,3 Mark Lambert, 4 James Percival, 5 George Robson, 6 Chris Robshaw, 7 Neil Mcmillan, 8 Phil Davies, 9 Andy Gomarsall (C), 10 Waisea Luveniyali ,11 Charlie Amesbury, 12 Tosh Masson, 13 De Wet Barry, 14 Epi Taione, 15 Tom Williams,
Replacements: 16 Dan Frazier, 17 Ignacio Elosu, 18 Ollie Kohn, 19 Tom Guest, 20 Gareth Williams, 21 Seb Jewell, 22 Seb Stegmann

In contract The Ospreys certainly are taking the competition very seriously naming a full strength side and will be hoping to get all the way to the final as they did last year. The Ospreys team is

15. Lee Byrne, 14. Jonny Vaughton, 13. Sonny Parker, 12. Gavin Henson, 11. Shane Williams, 10. James Hook, 9. Rhys Webb, 8. Ryan Jones (c), 7. Marty Holah, 6. Filo Tiatia, 5. Alun-wyn Jones, 4. Ian Gough, 3. Adam Jones ,2. Huw Bennett ,1. Duncan Jones
Replacements:  16. Richard Hibbard 17. Andrew Millward 18. Lyndon Bateman 19. Steve Tandy 20. Tom Smith, 21. Daniel Biggar 22. Tommy Bowe

As a foot note The EDF Energy Cup is set for a major revamp next season, including switching the competition to fit in around the International windows and they are thinking of adding a second-tier tournament too, which means it would be a different type of competition." It is believed that the overhaul will need careful attention to its commercial promotion, and while some of the internationals would be absent on Test duty that doesn't mean any devaluation of a strong, vibrant competition involving the clubs and regions.  

Come on You Quins!

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• October 2008 at Harlequins

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