Quins Need to Make a Quick Start Against Stade

By KevT
December 6 2002

NEC Harlequins take on Stade Francais at the Stoop Memorial ground on Saturday 7th December (kick off 3.00pm) in the second round of The Parker Pen Cup. Quins are taking on Stade on the back of a six match unbeaten home record.

Quins make four changes to the team that beat Saracens 36 – 32 at home last Saturday. Luke Sherriff replaces Andre Vos who is ineligible for this competition until the quarter final. Jim Evans replaces Alex Codling who has a bruised foot. Will Greenwood starts at Fly Half in place of Paul Burke. Chris Bell returns at centre. On the wing, Rob Jewell comes in for Ben Gollings, who is in Dubai with the England Sevens squad. Nick Duncombe failed a fitness test so Scott Bemand continues at scrum half. We are all glad to see Pat Sanderson on the bench and in the squad for the first time since October.

 

Evans makes a welcome return this week. (Pic: Simon Jones)

 

Quins Full Back Nathan Williams talking exclusively to www.comeallwithin.co.uk is looking forward to playing against the team whom he left at the end of last season. “I’m really looking forward to the match. I’ve been talking to some of my Stade mates this week. Six of us are going out on Saturday after the match. They’re a very tough team. We’ve been looking at some of their videos this week. They have De Villiers at prop who is world class; Diego Dominguez is a great kicker. Nick Mallett will not pick a centre who is less than 110 kilos (15 stone to you and me). Fortunately, Corleto is not playing because he’s like lightening. Christophe Dominici is as good as any wing in the world. He tore the All Blacks apart in that World Cup Semi Final.”

 

I asked Nathan whether he was pleased with the way he was playing. “I’m not playing too bad. It’s a bit like my golf game, I never seem to get all the bits right. I ran better on Saturday but my kicking wasn’t great.”

 

Nathan scored his first league try for Quins on Saturday. “I enjoyed that one. It was good to get that monkey off my back. The players, Matt Moore in particular, have been taking the Mickey out of me because I scored two tries pre-season and had not scored a League try. Matt’s scored loads. It was very helpful that Andy Goode turned his back on me as I was running through. I just followed Andre through.”

 

I said that many of the supporters were disappointed not to see his back flip. “I dived over the line which I enjoyed. We hadn’t won the game when I scored so that’s why I didn’t do the flip.”

 

Last Saturday’s match was a strange affair and Quins will need to have ironed out their mistakes. As kwin reported at the Press Conference last week Mark Evans said "Looking forward to it. Different week, different competition It's a great tie - they've got some quality acts. I really hope Galthie plays, I always like watching him, and who knows, we might have few boys back ourselves"

He was asked for his prediction - "Well, we might play like we did against Caerphilly at home in which case we'll get shipped by 60 ... or we might put on a performance like we did against Newcastle, and then we'll win by 20".

 

Stade have a fantastic half back pairing in Fabien Galthie (perhaps the world’s best scrum half?) and Diego Dominguez who is a great goal kicker and a good play maker if a little long in the tooth. Unfortunately Galthie is injured and replaced by Fillol. Stade also have Stephan Glas in the centre who is very quick and an ex-international.

 

Last Saturday Les Breves drew away at Montauban 22 – 22 but were without Galthie and French international prop Pieter De Villiers.

 

The second row and captain David Auradou understands the challenge and spoke on Stade’s press release this week. (Sorry about the rough translation). He is optimistic: "It is hoped that the drawn match will not affect us when we meet Harlequins. On the contrary, we must make use of it to avoid making the same mistakes. The attacking and defence were satisfactory. It’s only one or two adjustments that need to be made. On the other hand, we will have to be vigilant on the discipline and not to put the referee’s back up. We all are strong. We are well prepared. Harlequins are strong up front, but we equipped ourselves well against Montauban which has a strong pack. Now that we meet the English, the competition becomes interesting. We will find ourselves against s a team which we do not know, against players for the majority unknown. It is an additional motivation, a little more adrenaline. Like us, Harlequins, are frustrated not to play the Heineken Cup. You always want to play in a big match!”

 

This is a tough match against a team who can play some terrific rugby. Which Quins team will turn up? I’m looking forward to seeing Will Greenwood at Fly Half. The loss of Codling is very disappointing. If Quins can get enough quality ball then they will try to play the ball through their forwards.  Stade will miss their key play maker in Galthie. I think Quins can extend their winning home record if  they can get to Stade early enough. If the French team start to put points on the board early then they could run away with the match as their runners start to gain confidence. I don’t predict a close scoreline if either team win. Quins will win by more than ten if they get started early. If they don’t, Stade can win by more than ten.

 

NEC Harlequins: 15. Nathan Williams, 14. Rob Jewell, 13. Viliame Satala, 12. Chris Bell, 11. Matt Moore, 10. Will Greenwood, 9. Scott Bemand, 1. Jason Leonard (Capt.), 2. Tani Fuga, 3. Laurent Gomez, 4. Bill Davison, 5. Jim Evans, 6. Ace Tiatia, 7. Luke Sherriff, 8. Tony Diprose

 

Replacements: 16. James Hayter, 17. Bruce Starr, 18. Simon Miall, 19. Karl Rudzki, 20. Pat Sanderson, 21. Seb Fitzgerald, 22. Matthew Powell

 

 

Stade Francais: 15 Gomes; 14 Lombard; 13 Glas; 12 Liebenberg ; 11 Dominici; 10 Dominguez; 9 Fillol; 1 Marconnet; 2 Blin ; 3 De Villiers; 4 Auradou (cap); 5 James; 6 Moni; 7 Martin; 8 Rabadan

Replacements: 16 August; 17 Lemoine; 18 Sigoire; 19 Balat; 20 Mytton ; 21 Comba ; 22 Berthe