By KevT
April 16 2004

NEC Harlequins take on Rotherham on Friday night (kick off 7.30pm) in the Zurich Premier League. This is a must win match for Quins in the battle for a Heineken Cup place. Quins make three changes to the team that defeated Connaught at home by 31 – 22 last Sunday. Kai Horstmann replaces Tony Diprose, Mike Worsley comes in for Ceri Jones and Chris Bell replaces Mel Deane. I would expect Will Greenwood to move to inside center to allow Chris Bell to play outside center.

Rotherham have announced their team and Anthony Elliott and Michael Wood have passed late fitness tests to take their places in the starting line-up whilst Fijian scrum-half Jacob Rauluni is named amongst the replacements. Irish inrernational scrum half Guy Easterby captains the side.
Rotherham have found the move to the Premier League hard. In the first division they had a big pack and were able to "bully" a lot of the "smaller" clubs. They have not been able to do this in the Premier League where packs are much bigger and more streetwise. They have also not had the backing of a "Sugardaddy" as Worcester will have next season in Cecil Duckworth. The only team to have really made their mark following promotion has been Leeds and they were saved from the drop by Rotherham's inability to satisfy the RFU over their ground.

They have a big pacjk of forwards this season and a talented hooker in Andy Long (formerly of Bath). They have Mike Umaga, brother of All Black center Tana playing at inside center and he will try to commit tacklers to create space. Former Quin Luke Gross is an aggressive and huge line out jumper. I expect a fierce contest with a number of Rotherham players playing for contracts next year.

Mark Evans must have been pleased with the platform that forwards have given the team over the past few games but equally frustrated with the number of penalties that the forwards have given away. Possession and territory are hard earned prizes in this league and the fact that Quins' penalty count has been so high must b e a frustration. The tackle area is the real battle ground of Premier League rugby and it is where many matches are won and lost. Turnover ball is a highly prized commodity especially with the speed of Quins' back three. Watch any Premier League match and see how quickly turnver ball is shipped off to the wing. Defensive patterns are so good now that the opportunity to take advantage of turnover ball where defences are not aligned is highly prized. This is why Quins contest the tackle area so fiercely. The problem is that the tackle area is the place where interpretation by the referees is so different. The split between when a tackle (ball is up for grabs) and a ruck (when it is not) is small. The referee normally calls out ruck but players sometimes don't hear are too far gone to be able to stop. Can the referee see when a player comes in at the side? Not always. What happens if a player is on his feet and then gets knocked over? Last season some of us were complaining that we weren't fierce enough in the tackle area. We had the lowest penalty count in the league. Our pack seems more aggressive and is unlikely to be roughed up as it was last season (as against Leicester in the play offs) but the price of that has been a heavier penalty count. It's all about balance and perhaps Quins need to work on that balance.

This will be a tough physical encounter up front. Quins will hope to get the platform that they achieved last week to give their faster and more creative backs the opportunities to create tries as they did last week.

It will be a tough first half but Quins should ease away to get the five points they so desperately crave.

Harlequins: 15 Gavin Duffy; 14 George Harder; 13 Will Greenwood; 12 Chris Bell; 11 Ugo Monye; 10 Andy Dunne; 9 Simon Keogh; 1 Ceri Jones; 2 Tani Fuga; 3 Jon Dawson; 4 Simon Miall; 5 Jim Evans; 6 Roy Winters; 7 Andre Vos; 8 Kai Horstmann
Replacements: 16 Cameron Dott; 17 Mike Worsley; 18 Laurent Gomez; 19 Karl Rudzki; 20 Luke Sherriff; 21 Ben Willis; 22 Josh Taumalolo

Rotherham: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Anthony Elliott, 13 Jon Pritchard, 12 Mike Umaga, 11 Michael Wood, 10 Phil Jones, 9 Guy Easterby, 1 Nick Lloyd, 2 Andy Long, 3 Colin Noon, 4 Glen Kenworthy, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Des Tuavii, 7 Bloues Volschenk, 8 Brad Macleod-Henderson.
Replacements: 16 John Rawson, 17 Chris Johnson, 18 Corniel van Zyl, 19 Ryno van der Merwe, 20 Jacob Rauluni, 21 Jon Benson, 22 Lee Blackett