By Worried of Whitton
December 17 2004

This week is Round 6 of the Domestic Powergen Cup competition, which sees Harlequins away to Bath Rugby down at the Recreation Ground on Saturday, kick off at 2.15pm.

For the second year running Quins have been drawn away from home at the stage when the Premier League clubs enter the competition. The concern is that if we do not bounce back this week our chances of proceeding to the quarter finals are most likely to go the same way as our Heineken Cup hopes! Bath still have a slim chance of qualifying for the later stages of the European competition but the team that runs out on Saturday will be different from the one that beat us in the Premiership back in October. Bath are currently suffering from a spate of injuries. So in theory Bath could be there for the taking, especially he last time we won down at the Recreation Ground however, was back in May 1999, so the time is right for a win!

Bath had a list of 13 injured players going into last weeks match and at the start of the week this had grown to 16 with the news that Spencer Davey, their England Under-21 centre, will miss the rest of the season after tearing a knee ligament during their Heineken Cup win over Treviso on Saturday. In addition Nick Walshe and Alex Crockett have also joined the casualty list. Walshe has an ankle knock and is doubtful for the match at weekend, while Crockett is nursing a sore shoulder., although as the week has progressed some of those players are making a return including, Grewcock, who has made the bench, and their captain Jonathan Humphries, Martyn Wood and Feaunati. Barkley’s kicking kept them in the mix for the Heineken cup, helping them overcome Treviso last weekend, moves to full back for this match. With tickets still available for this match, and the Bath Fans main concern over their cheerleaders, rather than injured and missing players, one wonders whether they are expecting a foregone conclusion based on Quins recent performances.

The demons at Quins seem to have been laid to rest after last weeks’ in disciplined, inexcusable spectacle. In the second half, I had wondered if the team, sensing defeat, had though that a new career path was opening up and they had begun auditions for the parts in Richmond Theatre’s Christmas Pantomime. Ironically, after the match both sets of supporters sang slightly different versions of the chorus of “Delilah”, the jubilant Osprey fans with their “My! My! My!, with those demoralised Quins fans wailing “WHY? WHY? WHY?”

It remains to be seen what sort of team take the pitch. Will it be a team ready to capitulate and be fully immersed by Bath or will it be one that has plugged the leaks and hits the opposition like a power shower! There were absolutely no excuses for that performance last weekend and the players will have to move on up a few gears and be brimming with confidence if they are to tap Bath. The Quins performance so far this year is akin to that of the Spider in the Bath. The first couple of weeks saw no real movement upwards running around at the bottom, staring at the plug hole! Then we had a string of three victories to start climbing the league. Whilst we have a established at foothold at 10th position in the League, a couple of poor European Cup performances have seen us slide back down again, performance wise. We have to start that climb again. It is clear that if we want to qualify for next years Heineken Cup then our entry as Powergen winners is now realistically our only method of entry. Not withstanding that our main objective is to steer clear and stay clear of the relegation zone and all the problems that brings with it. With Bristol sitting on top of Division One, and week by week looking more and more likely to finish top of this league, they will be expecting automatic promotion. 

In a “could you do better “ posting on the CAW site this week Steeevo proposed his” team for Saturday” and number of regular posters  added their own ideas The consensus was essentially for no change with the exception of starting Mel Deane instead of Will Greenwood.  Passions have been inflamed in recent weeks regarding his performance which has been lacking in some areas of the field, and that essentially he has not been the same since returning from the World Cup. We are all hoping that he gets his return to form as soon as possible.  When the team was announced yesterday, Deane was in the starting line up but three “centres” had been selected. With Greenwood playing alongside Deane, James had been moved to replace the injured Harder the wing. Although this is a  position he is not too fond of, he did drift back into the inside centre channel when plating on the wing for the Warriors, giving greater options when charging at the bath defence, with Keogh, Staunton and Williams out wide.  It is not that surprising that Harder has a shoulder problem after his recent performances, with some very hard tackling, and he will be missed on Saturday. It is good to see Maling finally get a first team start in a Quins shirt. He has obviously had to fight hard for the number 5 shirt since his arrival from New Zealand, but on balance his selection would have been on his line out ability when along side the likes of Grewcock and Borthwick, as mentioned by Scotty this week. Staunton, has recovered from his injury and is back at number 10 with Jarvis on the bench. Tony Diprose makes a welcome return at No.8.

Once again we have a strong bench, with seven replacements that many teams would be happy to have in their starting line up.

Quins do have a point to prove, and there has to be a backlash but they will have to play the full 80 minutes plus. Another lost match and Christmas may well be cancelled at the Stoop, with extra training the only presents that Santa has on his list!.

Come on you Quins!
You can do much better. 

Prediction: A close match, but I fear that Quins will be left to concentrate on the league! 

NEC Harlequins:
15. Tom Williams,  14.Dafydd James, 13. Will Greenwood, 12. Mel Deane 11. Simon Keogh, 10. Jeremy Staunton , 9. Steve So’oialo, 1. Mike Worsley, 2. Tani Fuga, 3. Ceri Jones, 4.Roy Winters, 5. Simon Maling, 6. Nick Easter,  7. Andre Vos (c), 8, Tony Diprose
Replacements:  
16. Ace Tiatia, 17. Jon Dawson, 18. Maurice Fitz Gerald, 19.Simon Miall, 20. Luke Sherriff, 21 Adrian Jarvis, 22. Gavin Duffy 

Bath Rugby:
15. Ryan Davis, 14. Andrew Higgins, 13. Frikkie Welsh,12. Olly Barkley, 11. Bredon Daniel , 10. Chris Malone, 9.Martyn Wood/ Mike Baxter   1.Matt Stevens, 2.Jonathan Humphries(c), 3.Duncan Bell , 4. Steve Borthwick  5 Rob Fidler, 6. Andy Beattie, 7.Michael Lipman, 8.Isaac Fea’unati.
Replacements   

16.Lee Mears, 17.David Barnes,18,. Danny Grewcock, 19. James Scaysbrook, 20. Mike Baxter, 21. Tom Cheeseman, 22.Lee Best

 Match Officials
Referee: Huw Watkins (Wales)
Touch judges: Andy Melrose, Huw Jones-Williams