Harlequins 2014/15 Thread

[Sam]

First topic message reminder :

Squad for 2014/15 Season:
Hookers: Rob Buchanan, Joe Gray, Dave Ward
Props: Will Collier, Paul Doran-Jones, Mark Lambert, Darryl Marfo, Joe Marler (c), Kyle Sinckler
Locks: Charlie Matthews, George Merrick, George Robson, Sam Twomey
Backrow: Chris Robshaw, Joe Trayfoot, Luke Wallace, Jack Clifford, Nick Easter
Scrum Half: Danny Care, Karl Dickson, Sam Stuart
Fly Half: Ben Botica, Nick Evans
Centre: Tom Casson, Matt Hopper, George Lowe, Jordan Turner-Hall
Wing: Ugo Monye, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Charlie Walker, Tom Williams, Marland Yarde
Fullback: Mike Brown, Ross Chisholm, Ollie Lindsay-Hague

Players in: Asaeli Tikoirotuma (Waikato Chiefs), Marland Yarde (London Irish)

Players out: Tom Guest (London Irish), Sam Smith (Worcester Warriors), Samoa Maurie Fa'asavalu (Oyonnax), Nick Kennedy (retired), Tim Molenaar (London Welsh), Nic Mayhew (North Harbour), Paul Sackey (retired)

Pre-season:
FC Grenoble - Harlequins 16/08/14
Harlequins - Pau 23/08/14
Glasgow Warriors - Harlequins 23/08/14

Come on you Quins!!!  

[SirBurger]

Yea he has looked good for us, apart from one absolute clanger where he dropped the ball over the line against Bristol! I expect a huge performance from him tomorrow. Unfortunately, I also suspect Marland will be on fire...

[Poorfour]

Guest v Easter will be fascinating.  As an outsider looking in at Quins I never saw that much from Guest, but he has been excellent for us in pre season.  I suspect he may have a bit of a point to prove tomorrow.

He's an exceptional player - once played on the wing for us against Leicester and didn't disgrace himself - and can change a game once it opens up. The crucial things he lacked were Easter's ability to take control of a game, and his ability to play on and on without getting injured. I hope he does well for you, except against us.

Interestingly, we may also get to see Guest v Clifford - a player who is in many ways similar but who's young enough that he will definitely get game time when Easter eventually heads off into punditry [1]

[1] One day, we might have the Moore and Minty show commentating on an international. That would make me laugh.

[propdavid_london]

Well, a win is a win but I was biting my nails a bit in the 2nd Half.
Plenty to work on though!
It was a shame to see the scrum suffer. Kyle Sinkler did a lot better than Collier in dealing with Court, perhaps that just down to game time though.

The defensive setup was very good in stopping Irish from scoring a try. Perhaps also the reason the scrum suffered was when Charlie Matthews was replaced by Merrick!

[Sam]

Wasn't a great game by us, but a win is a win. Hopefully it 'gives us something to build on'.

Sarries Friday night at the Stoop, hopefully we can improve on the showing from the weekend.

[Poorfour]

Well, a win is a win but I was biting my nails a bit in the 2nd Half.
Plenty to work on though!
It was a shame to see the scrum suffer.  Kyle Sinkler did a lot better than Collier in dealing with Court,  perhaps that just down to game time though.  

The defensive setup was very good in stopping Irish from scoring a try.  Perhaps also the reason the scrum suffered was when Charlie Matthews was replaced by Merrick!

Aside from a couple of dumb decisions at the ruck, I thought Matthews was in good form. He finally seems to have worked out how to use his bulk when carrying, and it made a big difference. As you say, he's also very effective in the scrum.

Sinckler did do better than Collier, though both of them got caught out by a bind on the top of the sleeve and being folded in. However, we have to bear in mind that Collier was IIRC in his first competitive game for over 6 months, after a neck injury, so it's no surprise he's rusty. Also, they won't come up against many LHs as wily as Court.

[sad_gimp]

Ugo out for 3 months. I prefer Walker these days anyways, cover is pretty good there at the moment.

[Poorfour]

Ugo out for 3 months. I prefer Walker these days anyways, cover is pretty good there at the moment.

I heard it was til January. We haven't seen Ugo play an extended run of games for quite some time, sadly. Speculation over on Come All Within that this will be his last season.

Walker is a stunning attacking talent but I hope they've worked on his tackling since last season. He got steamrollered by North in the Saints game over Christmas, but it was mainly down to bad positioning and stance. Still, Marler's cover tackle the next time North tried it was such a thing of beauty that BT are using it in their ident at the moment.

[propdavid_london]

Ugo out! thats a shame, where did you hear that mid_gen?
Charlie Walker or Chisholm can cover - or perhaps OLH will be favoured to start over those 2!

[Poorfour]

Ugo out! thats a shame, where did you hear that mid_gen?
Charlie Walker or Chisholm can cover - or perhaps OLH will be favoured to start over those 2!

The Mirror reported it apparently: “Ugo will probably be out for three to four months,” said Quins boss Conor O’Shea. “He’s pulled his groin off the bone and it will need to be reattached.”

OLH is likely to start, as Walker and Chisholm both played on Monday night. Of those two, Walker seems more likely to be on the bench - apparently Chis looked quite rusty.

[Sam]

Hopefully Walker will come in, prefer him to OLH or Chisholm although I'd be happy for either of those to come in and prove me wrong putting in a match winning performance against Sarries.

[ChequeredJersey]

Do we not think TW will start?

[george doors]

Whats happened to Tikoirotuma

[yappysnap]

Tik's is out having surgery on an injury iirc, he should be back in a couple of monthsish.

Against any other side i'd start one of the youngsters alongside Yarde. But I still have nightmares about Smith and Stegmann playing Sarries in the past few seasons, hopefully Williams will be fit and can come in, he's often played his best when he's had something to prove too.

[Sam]

Do we not think TW will start?

Is he fit? Didn't see him in pre-season, what's been up with him?

[Poorfour]

Tik's is out having surgery on an injury iirc, he should be back in a couple of monthsish.

Against any other side i'd start one of the youngsters alongside Yarde. But I still have nightmares about Smith and Stegmann playing Sarries in the past few seasons, hopefully Williams will be fit and can come in, he's often played his best when he's had something to prove too.

Tiko said two weeks ago that it was 4-6 weeks and didn't mention surgery, so unless things change we can expect him back a bit sooner than that. It's Ugo who needs surgery.

Williams isn't back yet - or at least, it's OLH starting and Walker on the bench. It'd be good to have his nous, but those two are a step above S&S if a little raw.

[ChequeredJersey]

Matthews' defence has been ok bar that shocker vs North

[Poorfour]

Matthews' defence has been ok bar that shocker vs North

I think you mean Walker, but I agree

[ChequeredJersey]

Matthews' defence has been ok bar that shocker vs North

I think you mean Walker, but I agree

I always do that!

[HammerofThunor]

That was worth it though just for Marler's reply next time North tried to break down that wing. Oh yes it was. Don't think I've ever seen North flattened like that before or since

[Sam]

What are everyone's thoughts on the game tonight? Having looked at the betting Sarries are down as favourites - going off the first game of the season neither team had a great game.

[beshocked]

Can't expect every single team to be at their best in their first game.

A try bonus in a team's first game isn't bad at all, on the other side of the coin you have a team who kept a clean sheet.


http://www.oddschecker.com/rugby-union/uk-ireland/aviva-premiership/harlequins-v-saracens/winner

According to this - there's not much difference in terms of odds. It's not a good game to bet on.

[sad_gimp]

I have a nasty feeling we're going to get humped. A win against Sarries at the start of the season would be awesome though!

[beshocked]

Very obvious but Quins must play for the full 80.

Saracens have shown in many games that any lapse in concentration will be ruthlessly punished. Examples of this are Evans and Marler in two previous games trying to attack from their own try line throwing idiotic interception passes which basically finished off the matches.

I feel that Quins must resist the temptation to throw the ball with reckless abandon, the team to aspire to be like when taking on Saracens is the new look Saints.

Saints now have an attacking game far superior to that of Quins and are the benchmark in that area.

[quinsforever]

i think (hope) we might take this one. Thought David Flatman made some good points about us this season. If we arent going backwards from set-piece we have the backs to cause anyone real trouble.

as long as there are no injuries and no red cards i'll be happy though.

[yappysnap]

I don't think we'll be humped.

But I do think we'll be too well controlled and pressured by the Sarries game plan.

I always go in to these games thinking that we have to score early and score first to stand a chance, if we don't then Sarries will get the confidence from that and we'll get panicky.

[yappysnap]

Very obvious but Quins must play for the full 80.

Saracens have shown in many games that any lapse in concentration will be ruthlessly punished. Examples of this are Evans and Marler in two previous games trying to attack from their own try line throwing idiotic interception passes which basically finished off the matches.

I feel that Quins must resist the temptation to throw the ball with reckless abandon, the team to aspire to be like when taking on Saracens is the new look Saints.

Saints now have an attacking game far superior to that of Quins and are the benchmark in that area.

Agree there, we need to get proper go forward against Sarries before we start throwing the hail mary's. Which means guys like Marler, Minty and most importantly JTH need massive games. Turner-Hall hasn't had a big game in ages now so tonight would be a good time to put that right.

[beshocked]

Yappysnap the problem is twice last season you did were up at half time but lost so it's certainly not as simple as starting strong.

Wasps were down early but almost won (should have really won) but didn't close out the game well enough.

quinsforever the reality about Quins is that your attacking game last season was not as good as the other top 4 of Saints,Saracens and Leicester. You need to find your way to the try line more often.

Your defensive prowess now excels your attack.

[ChequeredJersey]

Ref is Barnes which these days I see as a bonus for us. Think he favours the Quins breakdown approach

[sad_gimp]

As I suspected so far. If not for Brown's tackle the scoreline would be very grim. A bonus point would be pushing it tonight. Not starting hard enough.

[ChequeredJersey]

We haven't lost this game quite yet

[sad_gimp]

I have a nasty feeling we're going to get humped.

Not happy about it, but the writing was on the wall after round 1. Not the first team to get bossed up front by Saracens, but the constant dropping of the ball killed the game for us. Basic handling all week.

[sad_gimp]

What's the injury tally after two games?

[ChequeredJersey]

That was horrible. And once again we might be down to academy 13s!

[quinsforever]

oh dear...humped was right mid_gen

[sad_gimp]

Going on Wasps and Bath form so far it's going to be a hell of an achievement to make top 6 this season. We're going to get turned over by bottom teams during the international window while we are blooding all these young players.

[ChequeredJersey]

Nah we'll be fine. We were saying this this time last season too

[sad_gimp]

We weren't this bad last year. What happened to our off-loading game? Most of the time we were dropping the ball before making it into contact, if we were lucky it was spilled in the tackle.

No excuses for that performance at this level. Scoreline would have been the same in r1 if we were playing any top half team.

Last season we just squeaked past the likes of wasps and bath with a bit of luck. This season I think they'll have our number, and Exeter.

[propdavid_london]

Morning CJ - That was an awful performance. Yes we were being all doom and gloom this time last year but we were never humped like that!

Quins have been beaten many times but they always seemed to fight/play to the very end of a match - heck we used to win many in the last 5mins. But in that game it looked like they gave up!
Is there a fitness issue - were half the team ill? Execution (normally a strong point) was non existent.

I'm not going to hold them to ransom for 1 bad performance - everyone has off days but there needs to be a reaction next week, or its going to be a long season.

[ChequeredJersey]

Does anyone know when we can buy Leinster home and away tickets?


Also anticipating a huge backlash for last week vs Wasps but it will be very hard as they look very good atm. And they'll have Wade back

[quinsforever]

Robshaw/Haskell is going to be huge. Both with points to prove.

We need to up our game dramatically if we want to win.

[ChequeredJersey]

Haskell and Robshaw IMO could well be a better flank pairing than even Woodshaw. T1 in NZ looked good with them there.

Rumours that Armitage might be coming back to the AP btw...

[Ozzy3213]

Any club mentioned in these rumours CJ?

[quinsforever]

i would be wildly excited about Armitage coming back. have made no secret of it.

but...

why would boudjella and RCtoulon let him out of his contract?

and who could afford to buy him out of the remainder of his contract?

and who needs a 6, 7 or 8?

and who has space in their salary cap...?

we wont get him thats for sure. it is certain to be a london based club though (imo).

[ChequeredJersey]

It's linked to the 2-marquee plan for post RWC2015 but will obviously depend on whether he ends up playing for France or noy

[quinsforever]

i saw the espn story. bit thin. but leaves room for him to fit under the salary cap, only this is thats a rule for next season.

http://www.espn.co.uk/premiership-2014-15/rugby/story/241241.html

i would love him to be in the EPS. just doesnt seem likely. especially given toulons poor start to the season.

[Jenifer McLadyboy]

Does anyone know when we can buy Leinster home and away tickets?

Jaysus lads. You'd want to get moving. I bought mine on the Quins website a month ago.


Our ones are not released yet but there will be no shortage with 52000 seats to fill.

Looking forward to getting back over to see you all. Have booked flights over on the Friday and back on Sunday to cover all eventualities.

Was there in 09 for the QF and for the Munster game in 13. Enjoyed the stoop and it's fans.

[ChequeredJersey]

But the tickets for the game in Dublin aren't out yet? Will buy tickets for both matches and my flights but need to get this month's pay first

[Jenifer McLadyboy]

But the tickets for the game in Dublin aren't out yet? Will buy tickets for both matches and my flights but need to get this month's pay first

Our ones are not released yet but there will be no shortage with 52000 seats to fill.

Don't worry we'll show you a good time.

[propdavid_london]

Is anyone planning on travelling to the Castre game? Or has been before?
Whats the best way to get there and is the Stadium outside of town or easy to get to?

[Jenifer McLadyboy]

Here are some helpful guides to Castres from Leinster.

Stadium in town, but a shortage of hotels. Some tips here.

http://forum.leinsterfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=23534

Here is our "away guide" from January

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/files/downloads/Guide_to_Castres_2014.pdf

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