By KevT
September 5 2002

After losing a match they could easily have won, NEC Harlequins take on the might of last year’s champions and Heineken Cup holders the Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on Saturday (Kick off 3.00pm). Quins make two changes from the team that narrowly lost on Saturday. Alex Codling has failed to recover from the hamstring injury that saw him taken off midway through the second half at Gloucester. Karl Rudzki who had a very good game for the second team on Monday takes his place. Keith Wood who had left to captain Ireland against Romania misses that game as well due to the sad death of his brother. Ace Tiatia replaces Woody at hooker and Luke Sherriff who also played well for the seconds takes Ace’s place at blindside flanker. There are no changes to the backs. Fijiian international Bill Satala who had an outstanding game for the second team on Monday keeps his place on the bench - the management want to take a bit of time with him as he settles in.

Quins produced an impressive display against a strong Gloucester side on Saturday but were disappointed not to get the win. Quins wing and England Sevens Captain Ben Gollings explained “We thought we let ourselves down on Saturday. It was a game we should have won. We felt we gave the game to Gloucester rather than them winning it. We have had to accept that we lost, feel the pain that the loss gave us. Believe me we don’t want to feel that pain again.”

“There were also a lot of good aspects to come out of the game. I really enjoyed it and but for the one unlucky bounce could have scored a try.”

Leicester are smarting from a hiding at Headingley at the hands of last years bottom placed side Leeds. “Leicester played poorly at Leeds and we are ready for a tough contest but we know how to play against them. We beat them last year in the Cup (and the year before). We must play our own game and not be dictated to by Leicester.”

Will the Tiggers bounce back? Assistant Coach and centre Rod Kafer who is unavailable on Saturday thinks Leicester have come out of the traps slowly. “We are off the pace at the moment. It will take us a bit of time to get going. It’s not a surprise, it’s the process of making changes.”

Kafer was particularly concerned over the number of turnovers that Leicester conceded. “Our execution was particularly poor and the number of turnovers was in the 30s. We try to keep it under 20 if we can. We were 50 per cent too many, that was our biggest problem.”

Leicester are unbeaten at home in the league December 1997 but it’s been nearly as long since Leicester have been turned over the way they were by Leeds on Saturday. Words like “awful” don’t appear in the Tigers dictionary very often but there was Graham Rowntree using it three times in an interview to describe their performance on Saturday.

In the corresponding fixture last year both teams were weakened by international call ups and Quins came the closest they have come to in years to beating the Tigers at Welford Road losing 23 - 18. Paul Burke scored all of Quins points with five penalties and a dropped goal. Tim Stimpson scored all of Leicester’s points with two tries, two conversions and three penalties.

The Quins front row of Leonard, Tiatia and Gomez lock horns with another international trio this weekend in Rowntree, West and Tournaire. Quins will have been encouraged by the performance of the scrum against Gloucester and will be hoping that the absence of Codling doesn’t weaken the scrum too much.

It is the lineout that will be the greatest cause for concern. Codling will be sorely missed in this area and Quins will be up against the best duo in the Premiership in Johnson and Kay. Will Quins change their game plan? They will be concerned that they will not be able to secure enough possession without Codling. I think Quins will kick as much as they did on Saturday but try to avoid giving lineouts away.

It is in the backs that Quins appear to hold an advantage. Leicester are without Rod Kafer and Leon Lloyd due to injury. Twenty Year old Dan Hipkiss played last week at inside centre but my hunch is that, up against Will, Leicester will play their strong tackling new signing Joseph Naufahu. “Stalin” as he has been nicknamed was signed from the Canterbury Crusaders within the last two weeks. The Quins centre pairing should find it easier to get past the inexperienced pairing of Smith and Naufahu. Greenwood and Bell look better every time they play together. They were up against two of the hardest tackling centres in Rugby in Todd and Faniloa last week and punched holes.

Quins are aware that Leicester like to play a wide game and have been working on their defence this week. The wide game will also present opportunities particularly in broken play. Leicester looked very exposed by Dan Scarborough in broken play last week. Players were isolated on Saturday and Leicester turned over too much ball. If the same thing happens on Saturday then it will give the exciting Quins back three of Williams, Gollings and Moore the opportunity to counter attack.

In the close season Leicester signed Scrum Half Tom Tierney from Munster and it is possible that he will replace James Hamilton at Half Back. Austin Healey will play at Fly Half but doesn’t appear to have the confidence of the supporters in this position.

The Leicester back row of Kronfield, Back and Corry looks an awesome triumverate but they were out fought on the ground last week. The Tigers missed the first choice Lewis Moody who is sidelined with an injury. Could The Tigers’ Tank be running on empty? Has Father Time have finally caught up with these three?

A few years ago this would have been the worst time to have played the Tigers. A week after a defeat the team would fired up and ready to take out their frustration on the opposition. This Tigers team looked fragile at the end of last season narrowly beating Llanelli in the Heineken Cup thanks to a miracle penalty from Stimpson. Then we had the “Back Hander” in the final against Munster. They lost to Bristol at home in the Zurich Championship. No one expected Leeds to win on Saturday but it was the manner of the defeat that shocked Leicester. Six of their pack are over thirty years old.

Quins showed on Saturday that they have a much more solid platform than last season. The forwards looked strong and retained possession well. The backs had a real cutting edge. Can Quins break Leicester’s run? The absence of Codling is a real blow but if they can get enough ball then I believe they have the strength and guile in the middle and pace out wide to embarrass Leicester. They have knocked the Tiggers out of the Cup twice in the last two seasons. Quins know how to beat them.




Leicester Probable
15. Stimpson, 14. Booth, 13. Smith, 12. Naufahu, 11. Tuilagi, 10. Healey, 9. Tierney, 1. Rowntree, 2. West, 3. Tournaire, 4. M. Johnson, 5. Kay, 6. Kronfeld, 7. Back, 8. Corry.

NEC Harlequins

15. N. Williams 14. M. Moore 13. W. Greenwood 12. C. Bell 11. B. Gollings 10. P. Burke 9. M. Powell 1. J. Leonard 2. A. Tiatia 3. L. Gomez 4. B. Davison 5. K. Rudzki 6. C. Sherriff 7. P. Sanderson 8. T. Diprose

Replacements: 16. M. Caputo 17. B. Starr 18. S. Miall 19. J. Evans 20. S. Bemand 21. D. Sleman 22. V. Satala