Harlequins v London Irish - The Ugly Duckling Cup Sat 8th April

Harlequins team
15. Mike Brown
14. Marland Yarde
13. George Lowe
12. Jamie Roberts
11. Tim Visser
10. Ben Botica
9. Danny Care©

1. Mark Lambert
2. Joe Gray
3. Adam Jones
4. George Merrick
5. Sam Twomey
6. Chris Robshaw
7. Luke Wallace
8. Jack Clifford

16. Dave Ward
17. Owen Evans
18. Kyle Sinckler
19. Charlie Matthews
20. Mat Luamanu
21. Karl Dickson
22. Joe Marchant
23. Ross Chisholm

London Irish Team:
15 Andrew Fenby, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Fergus Mulchrone, 12 Theo Brophy Clews, 11 Tom Fowlie, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 1 Tom Smallbone, 2 David Paice, 3 Leo Halavatau, 4 Will Lloyd, 5 Jebb Sinclairm 6 Tom Guest, 7 Joe Trayfoot, 8 Rob McCusker

Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Tom Court, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Ollie Curry, 20 David Sisi, 21 Gerard Ellis, 22 Darren Allinson, 23 Scott Steele

Team Form
Irish come in to this game probably viewing it as an extra match they don't need with a relegation battle on their hands. They'll be well aware that Newcastle have the week off, and will be rested and waiting for the relegation decider between the two in a weeks time. Coming up to this game the London Irish season as a whole has been terrible, with few wins, and many losses it's easily their worst. Even when playing at their best, they've still usually contrived to lose games they'd expect to win.

Harlequins have had a mixed season, they started strongly but the 6Ns and other things seem to have effected them badly. They'll be looking to use Europe to get their season back on track, and will not only expect to beat Irish, but will expect to make the finals of this comp.

Very strong Quins team!

Great to see Lowe back.

We've really gone all out selection wise, I just hope the performance backs up that decision.

I expect us to thrash Irish and give them very little in return.

Im assume this is the last thing Irish need with the big game against us Next weekend.

Do LI have an injury problem, or is that bench just to ensure that key players are rested for Falcons fixture? I count just two backs (both SHs) and two hookers there.

And no Symmons etc...

We basically rotated as much as possible within ERC squad restrictions. Explains the 2 hookers and 2 9s on the bench, with a 6-2 split.

Injury situation (which has been a big problem) is actually easing a touch, with Lewington and Franks possibly expected back next week.

Hearn
Symons
Aulika
Williams
Tonks
Cowan
Narraway

All rested off the top of my head. Treviranus possibly too, although he may be injured as he picked up a knock last week.

Looks like CoS wants to bow out with some silverware....

Robshaw/Clifford/Wallace I wouldn't mind seeing in white at some point, be good to see how they go.

If we finish within 30 points of Quins tonight I'll consider that we have done well.

Just seen the current score.

What the frak are Quins doing?

Brown got absolutely smoked then. Really flat footed.

Ozzy3213 wrote:If we finish within 30 points of Quins tonight I'll consider that we have done well.

Well they did that at least ... managed to get into a good lead and lose it again though.

Should of had Tom guest in the bin, not sure how the officials decided not to yellow him.

Well that was more exciting then it needed to be!!

Well done Irish, you had far more aggression and far better tactics then us all game. You're kicking caused us problems all match, only Brown dealt with it well and our return kicks were generally poor. Also your breakdown work was far smarter, often not going for a steal but just walking through the ruck and kicking the ball which while annoying as Frak worked really well.

Quins were their usual selves, playing lovely lively rugby, playing silly rugby, playing on our own 22 for the majority of the first half and putting ourselves under all sorts of pressure. Our restart work was terrible, our decision making in our 22 was painful and our defensive rucks were ropey.

Saying that every single time we did get in their 22 you could sense a score was coming. Our mauls and scrums looked strong and the whole team looked more in sync then I've seen in a long time.

If we can just sort the decision making out, work on the mindsets entering games then I think we'll be a far better team.

Oh and a big mention to Robshaw and Care. Both kept us in the game and in their own ways won it for us. Care with his tries, vision and arrogance in the face of any odds which you can see literally drags Quins forwards at times.

And Robshaw his usual self, working harder then any one else on the pitch even after the long season he's had, his Non-try was gutting.

I've not seen the game so difficult to comment but the general consensus from irish fans I've spoken to who were at the game is that if we play in the same manner we have every chance of beating Falcons on Sunday.

The main issue I forsee is that we played well when the pressure was off, whereas on sunday the pressure will be huge. It's also worth noting that however well we may have performed, we still once again lost the match.

Ozzy you guys played really well. Kicking and rucking were top drawer and you just pinned us in our own half most of the game.

You should take a lot of confidence from that, and definitely start Guest and Trayfoot too.

And therein lies one of the issues yappy. Guest and Trayfoot have hardly had a look in with TC appearing to really favour Narraway and Cowan.

Strange that ad both were great against us. I really think you'll have enough to win against Falcons off that performance.

Trayfoot has been good pretty much every time he has played, but Guest can only have played 2 or 3 games all season.

Yea I was very dissapointed that we lost Trayfoot, he's far more a classic physical 6 and sometimes that's very useful. Guest seems very injury prone unfortunately but very good when fit