Chiefs v Quins

Great start by Quins who have got their off loading game going straight away.

5-0 Danny Care try.

Brown carrying on his great form but will he displace Foden?

Clergg with a great break splitting the Chiefs defence.
He is looking an able deputy to Evans with a couple of deft touches.

Maybe not just missed his third kick at goal!

It's a good game and so it should be in near perfect conditions.

6-5 to the Chiefs despite more than twice the possession for Quins!

Clegg made that one.
Half ends 6-8.

Great run by Arscott but stopped on the 22 after forward pass.

Sub Mitchell on for Andress shows the quality of the chiefs props

Mitchell 1 Marler 0

James Johnson on for Fairbrother.

10,602 confirmed attendance good effort. It won't be long before they start filling the 20,000 stadium in the future.

Clergy misses his forth kick.

Johnson now on for the Chiefs

Yes Scaysbrook should have been pinged there for stopping the quick pen by Care.
Clegg misses his fifth kick - shocker!

Better scrum there for Quins Johnson has made the difference followed by good kick from hand by Clegg

Some good play there by Quins with great handling again but knock on by Johnson prevents a try.

Game is opening up but both sides guilty of basic errors.

Good break by Chiefs showing some good handling themselves but stopped by Robshaw who so often seems to be in the right place.

Stevenson on for Mieres.

There it is the famous pass into touch by Hayes.. Seems to be one in every game!

SCORE please ??

6-8 to Quins

10 mins to go

Penalty to Exeter given away by Brown.

Right in front of posts but horrible wobbly kick just goes over on the replay.

9-8

6 mins left crowd go wild

I bet ASBO is going mental

Clegg slots over his hardest kick of the day.

9-11

Hold on there ASBO!

Ooh Monye knocks on right on line 5 metre scrum to Chiefs

Nooooooo !!!!

Errrr - YES . C'mon Chiefs

Oh no Stevenson misses the glory drop goal in last minute!

Aaarrrgggggghhhhh !!!

Magnificent steal by Robson at the last line out in extra time.

Game over 9-11.

Great win for Quins.

Chiefs should have gone for a try or penalty they were in the driving seat.

Ok ladies & gents enjoy the evening Im sure I will.

See you all next year!

Commiserations to ASBO

Thanks for the updates Big Trev, have a great evening

Well done to the Quins

Great game.

Bloody physical and we needed a match just like that after last week.

Scrums still a worry. Now Fairbrother seems to be a weakness too but at least Johnston actually locked it down when he came on. Yes Kohn will add a lot of ballast and experience but it seems awfully risky hedging everything on one player coming back.

We need to sign a scrummaging forward.

Other then that I was chuffed with almost every other aspect of the teams play.

Backrow played very well, Wallace is class and for me has to start more often. Keep Mo for HC matches and alternate them more often. Guest looked very dynamic in the first half at least.

Care had his best game yet, looked better then Youngs in his game awareness and control.

Clegg had a crazy game, some fantastic vision, stepping and passing mixed up with shocking kicking only to then nail the match winner which was also his toughest kick of the match.

Centres combined really well, JTH seems to be trying really hard to show he can do more then just bosh the ball up and Hopper is just electric. Curious to see where Lowe will fit in.

Wasn't really a game for the back three to excel but Williams and Brown combined well and cut up Exeter and Monye was a man possesed chasing kicks and defending.

Thought Quins looked really good. The one area of their game that impressed me other than their off-loading was in their clearing out. I'd be interested to hear from Quins fans whether they agree but O'Shea seems to have them really blasting people away at the ruck. It's something about the English game that has wound me up the last few years so it's great to see a team coached like this.

I watched Leicester v Sale yesterday and fully expected to see Sale get dominated as their pack appears really lightweight. But again, their work at the breakdown was immense. Really aggressive.

Of all the teams i've watched this year, Quins and Sale to me look best at the breakdown and look to approach it as the southern hemisphere teams do. Kudos to O'Shea and Diamond i think.

Good point Hood; both those teams also play alot of younger, dynamic forwards in their packs and target set piece dominance as secondary to the breakdown much like the SH do too?

Obviously both suffer in the scrums due to this but around the park it's a bonus.

That's the best I've seen Clegg play - his game management has really come on. Yes he missed some kicks, but they were all good strikes. The man just needs game time, as he's potentially an international 10.

To be fair to Clegg, when the win gets up around Sandy Park, it's not the easiest stadium to kick in - I've seen plenty of good kickers struggle there

Glad to hear that Wallace and Guest had good games. I only saw the highlights, but from what I saw of Wallace he was impressive.

It may be too soon to say, but what do people make of Guest's chances for the EPS now that he's back?

I don't think Guest is international class and I think there are better number 8's to choose from.

I think Wallace has more chance, as he is a proper 7, which is something England lack at the moment.

That's the main reason I want to see Wallace in the EPS sooner rather than later. From the limited amount of him that I have actually seen, his breakdown work is very good and he's also a great link-man.

He has a good all round opensides game. Would give England a different option there, but would be a brave call from Lancaster given he is not yet first choice for his club and has only had a handful of first team starts. Guess we'll find out in the not to distant future if Lancaster has the cojones.

Ozzy3213 wrote:He has a good all round opensides game. Would give England a different option there, but would be a brave call from Lancaster given he is not yet first choice for his club and has only had a handful of first team starts. Guess we'll find out in the not to distant future if Lancaster has the cojones.

To be fair to Wallace, he's gone - in less than a season - from the Academy to effectively being in rotation with a full international who was several pundits' choice for the best openside of the world cup and a guy who is both his club captain and someone who many feel should have been in the England team. He's not the preferred starter, but even when Mo and Robshaw are fully fit it's been standard Quins' practice to bring him on after 50 minutes.

It's probably premature to rush him into the EPS but I would love to see him in the Saxons to face the Irish Wolfhounds - that would be a very good test of his ability to step up.

As for Guest, who exactly are the better options? Dowson probably won't last til 2015, Easter almost certainly won't, Narraway's struggling for form, Morgan is unproven and we don't even know if he wants to play for England, Crane is injured. That leaves Waldrom, and Guest is at the very least an interesting alternative. The thing that Guest offers is that he gives you quite a lot of what Croft brings in terms of pace and ability in the air, while also being a proper 8. The problem is that he's been out with two freak injuries for most of 2011; barring that, there's a good chance he'd have overtaken Easter as Quins' first choice by now. He needs a run of games to prove his form, but would again benefit from Saxons exposure with an eye to touring him in the summer.

Not sure how Narraway is struggling for form tbh Poorfour, and he would be my preferred choice at 8. I would also take James Phillips from the Chiefs over Guest along with Ben Morgan should he throw his hat into the ring (which I believe from reading other reports that he has done).

Poorfour wrote: several pundits' choice for the best openside of the world cup and a guy who is both his club captain and someone who many feel should have been in the England team.

Poorfour who is this player you're talking about? I might just be being stupid, but I don't recognise the player from that description! Are you confusing Luke Wallace with David Wallace and hence thinking of Sean O'Brien by any chance??!

I'm talking about two players. Maurie Fa'asavalu was picked as the 7 of the tournament by at least a couple of pundits and Chris Robshaw should have been in the England squad. Wallace, L is holding his own with them in the club side.

Ah I see, sorry, I misread that and interpreted it in my own obscure way! Still got the Christmas hangover.

Wallace certainly is holding his own, and along with the likes of Kvesic and Abbott I think has a very promising future.

I would like to see a backrow of Robshaw, Wallace and Guest soon, just to see how they get on as a unit.

Have now had a chance to watch the game again courtesy of PremTV (and slightly more sober) - confirms that Scays and Arscott were lucky not to get YCs for professional fouls, but also that Camacho should never have been penalised for ripping the ball clear in the tackle in the lead up to Care's Try - ah well, swings and round-thingies

bluestonevedder wrote:Ah I see, sorry, I misread that and interpreted it in my own obscure way! Still got the Christmas hangover.

Wallace certainly is holding his own, and along with the likes of Kvesic and Abbott I think has a very promising future.

I would like to see a backrow of Robshaw, Wallace and Guest soon, just to see how they get on as a unit.

That was the unit that played vs Exeter, and it looked pretty good. It was a tough game, but I think it's fair to say that Quins made most of the running and Exeter were forced into conceding penalties - which unfortunately Clegg wasn't able to convert, except when it mattered. If he'd been at his usual percentages, the scoreline would have been 21/22 - 9.

^ how did you watch the full game out of interest aslongas?

Given how long he has been out, my inclination would be to allow Guest a run of games before considering him for the EPS, so the 6N probably a bit too soon and the summer tour more sensible.

That being said, apart from his match fitness letting him down towards the end, I thought he had a pretty good game and seemed raring to go from the off. He's always struck me as an intelligent, skillful and athletic 8, but he also definitely wanted to put some runs in from the base at the weekend, making plenty of hard yards, carrying for 70m (second only to Brown and at least twice as much as any other Quins player).

Given the injuries to current candidates and if the rumours are right that Lancaster is definitely not going to select Easter, then I might think again re Guest if he gets good HC game time. I'd certainly rather him than Narraway, who has really failed to step up the last few years in my opinion, looked average playing on the lesser international stage of the Saxons and often goes missing for Gloucester in big games.

After recovering from injuries, I see England's future 8s being Crane, Fearns & Guest (with at least two making the squad, maybe all three with Fearns ability to cover the backrow). Crane the big classic 8, Fearns the more agressive option with greater breakdown skills and Guest the more athletic linkman with good all round ability (more in the Read Mould).

A few people championing Phillips recently, but he certainly didn't stand out at the weekend, subbed after 50mins with almost no metres to his name and having missed more tackles than any other player would for the rest of the game (3), half the tackles he made.