Harlequins
The Good & The Bad: Quins v Toulouse
By Battering Ram Winger
October 19 2009
Here is the latest in the saga of installments that's gripping at least half a dozen people worldwide. THE GOOD
1). A Boxing analogy -
Quins, the unfancied challenger went toe to toe for 12 rounds with a heavyweight champion and lost on points, earning respect. But it could have been so much more as we had them on the ropes and couldn't land the knockout blow when the jaw was there for the shot.
2). UGOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
If he doesn't start for England, then Johnson took one to many blows to the head in his playing days. His first try was the sort of try you want wingers to score all the time - ball in two hands to help open the gap caused by defensive "stick or twist" indecision and then a burn through the outside. His second was poacher supreme. Watching again this morning, Barnes said he was the most improved player in England and he's right. And there are still cretins over on Planet Rugby who say he has a lack of footballing skills.
3). We lost, but it bodes well for the GP -
If we can keep that sort of level of performance going, there aren't many (any?) teams with the firepower Toulouse could bring on to shore up their problems.
4). Guest -
One eye-catching run, but he showed that there can be life after Skinner if needs be.
THE BAD -
1). Goal kicking still costing us -
This loss falls into the massive, leather bound compendium of "Quins matches that got away from them", a tome into its ninth volume, sadly. Evans played some sublime stuff with ball in hand and his kicking out of hand was vastly improved (thanks in part to a much better kick chasing performance), but off the tee we're still not there.
2). Decision making rubbish at times -
Three chances for a try within a couple of minutes - Brown's failure to offload to Ugo in space, Guest trucking it back up when he should have moved it out wide, Care not even looking left to see the acres of space and trying a daft chip to Tani Fuga of all people. Plus the usual problems of no one following Strettle; it's all very well cheering his mazy runs (and Shaggy tracking them) but unless we get to him when he's (and Lowe) tackled, we'll just turn over the ball. The one time we did get to him, we recycled nice and quickly and Ugo went over in the corner.
3). Our Bench vs. Their Bench -
Just look at the programme, really.
4). Scrums -
I'm not going to blame Lambert. I'm looking further back - both Evans and Stephenson are good players (Stephenson in particular is maturing nicely) but not together, we need Percival or Kohn back for some beef. You can have the greatest front row ever but if the locks can't lock it out, the scrum will suffer. Robson's back soon, he will add a bit of edge.
5). Injuries -
May hurt us. Plus, Brown should have been taken off sooner, he was hobbling with cramp/ankle injuries for about 5 minutes before we finally threw Clegg on.
Before the match, I said to my dad I'd be happy with a bonus point loss. At the end, I was extremely disappointed with a bonus point loss and I think that reflects that we played a hell of a lot better than we have thus far. But in the end, Toulouse just had the class to come on when their first team tired, we didn't.
But if we can keep up the performances, we should start to win in the GP at least.
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Stumbleupon19/10/2009 14:13
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The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George
I wouldn't lay any blame at his feet for the defeat, we had the chance to put Toulouse's fightback away and blew it. Also, I think we missed Skinner's captaincy.
A lineout would probably have followed anyway. Ugo cannot be blamed for that score despite the views of the correspondent of the Independent who I suppose was at the match!
The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George
Couldn't have put things any better.
Let's see how Quins get on with Wuzz before we start to read too much into their 40 minute performance last Saturday.
Danny very unlucky with his break.....nothing new there
Nick Easter massive game again.....nothing new there
Need a stronger bench......nothing new there.
Need more players to practice goal kicks....nothing new there
