Harlequins
Preview: Harlequins v Bath
By Quinten Poulsen
October 30 2010
An expected sell-out crowd will welcome Bath to The Stoop on Sunday in what promises to be another intense affair between these two teams. With only 4 points separating the 4th to 8th placed teams, whoever wins this game will start feel more comfortable in terms of Heineken Cup qualification.
Both teams have lost players to England, with Shontayne Hape, David Wilson, Danny Care and Nick Easter all likely to be playing next week against the All Blacks. Lewis Moody will also feature in that game, probably as captain, as long as he comes through this premiership fixture with no further problems. Apparently Moody's vision is still not 100% and he may not even recover full vision, so it's a testament to the man's courage that he is already back playing. Moody, Watson and Taylor is a high quality back row, so the battle with Robshaw, Skinner and Guest should be memorable. Moody may only play for 60 minutes bearing in mind next week's fixture, but Watson has been mostly terrific this season and has been stealing balls for fun. And what more can be said about the warrior poet from Scotland – qualified lawyer and fluent in 4 languages.
Danny Grewcock just keeps going, and is always a handful being both very belligerent and very experienced. He's the sort of player that Quins need to target physically – keep him quiet and Bath aren't quite as effective. Mike Brown's old pal Hooper partners Mad Danny at lock, and this will please the Quins fans who are infatuated with converted blindsides playing in the second row! Bath have a few front row problems with Wilson on England duty, Mears and Barnes injured, and Belly usually playing a shortened game. In Nathan Catt however, they have a young prospect at loosehead of who great things are expected. He's not the man of the moment that Joe Marler is, but Catt has steadily been learning the game initially on loan at Newbury when they were still a decent team, and representing England through the age grades. He has played in every Bath game this season and it will be a good chance to compare two of England's brightest young looseheads. Dixon at hooker is possibly a bit under-rated, but when on song he's a real handful.
Quins rotate the hookers again with Matt Cairns starting and Joe Gray benching. Perhaps with Bath's slightly weakened front row the scrums will be a bit more even than we're used to seeing. John Andress needs a big game while James Johnston is sadly still back with his family, plus I'm sure a lot of Quins supporters are yet to be convinced by the selection of two lighter weight locks – Sunday is a good opportunity for the pack to show that as a scrummaging unit they have what it takes to compete strongly against an opposition that aren't at full strength; anything less will be a bit of a disappointment.
Perhaps the most interesting selection across the backs is Matt Banahan at outside centre. He gets a lot of stick from fans outside of Bath for being a bit limited and one-dimensional, but he is without doubt one of Bath's most important players. His off-loading game seems to get ignored by many, plus his previous odd sojourn at centre has paid dividends. He's an enormously strong runner and will no doubt be key for Bath tomorrow. I'm not too worried about 'little' George Lowe facing him in particular, as Lowe's low centre of gravity, strength and timing make him a very competent tackler. Barkley v Turner-Hall is another interesting match-up, and whilst Barkley has a better all round game JTH will always attract defenders like flies to a Jolly Hog carcass – let's hope Jordan's on top bosh form, as even though some see him as a bit of a one-trick centre it is still a very good trick, and his ability to stay on his feet in contact combined with his off-loading game make him one of our best attacking weapons.
At half back Michael Claassens has shown over several seasons that he's one of the best in the league, although despite Vesty being a talented enough player it's with Butch James that Claassens has looked at his finest. Nick Evans is in stupendous form this season in pretty much every facet of his game, and if Karl Dickson plays at his best we could see some exciting attacks generated by these two. Dickson's main strength is perhaps his ability to fire out good accurate passes without a hint of dithering, and when this happens the Harlequins backline tends to look rather good.
There's a large amount of speed, talent and try-scoring ability throughout the six back 3 players. Abendanon, despite his gaffes, is joyful to watch when attacking. He's certainly the only full back in the league to match Foden when it comes to exciting the crowd from full back with those "how on earth did he do that" type of runs. Biggs is not fully settled in at Bath yet, but he remains a very speedy winger who is stronger than he looks and a good try scoring record. Carraro is strong and direct with a pretty good try return considering he's played mostly at centre. Brown, Williams and Camacho make up the Quins back 3, and in front of a packed home crowd perhaps they should be expected to edge this battle.
This could prove to be a very close match with the teams well matched on paper. There are some great names in the Bath side and after 6 games and 3 wins something clearly hasn't been quite right. Home advantage and the aforementioned large crowd could be the difference between the sides, and Quins have a good home record against Bath. However, Bath are due a win at The Stoop soon I'm sure. It's a bit close to call, but I feel if Quins play at the level they aspire to on Sunday then I think they'll be good enough.
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O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis,
semper crescis aut decrescis
Enjoyable read, I hold your optimism as well.........................................
One of the founder members of the Q-GOMC (promoted to Major Grump) – and proud of it - Bah!
Quote:TedwardPowell
Did you guess the part about it being a sell out?
I looked on the online ticket site - there were only a couple of hundred or so left. I might not even get to see the game.
Or perhaps just screaming loudly if my pain-klliers wear off!!
Quote:Quinten PoulsenQuote:TedwardPowell
Did you guess the part about it being a sell out?
I looked on the online ticket site - there were only a couple of hundred or so left. I might not even get to see the game.
Are you not a STH?
![[:wor kid:]](/phorum-5.1.15/mods/smileys/images/13.gif "[:wor kid:]")
The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George
