Preview: Ulster v Quins

Harlequins renew their successful Heineken Cup campaign, this season when they travel to meet Ulster at Ravenhill in Belfast on Saturday January 17th. Kickoff is at 13.35 and is being shown live on Sky Sports, as the satellite tv company continue their love affair with the quartered shirts in this year’s competition, after televising their tremendous back to back wins over Stade Francais.

The Pool 4 table looks like this after four matches.  Looks good doesn’t it?

Harlequins, so far, have a 100% record in this season’s Heineken Cup, and share this feat with Toulouse in Pool 5 and Cardiff and Pool 6, and are in a good position to qualify for the quarter final stages, but they cannot afford to rest on their laurels. The two magnificent wins, which we have enjoyed celebrating over the past month, must now be consigned to history as the sole focus has to be a win in Belfast to secure a place in the next round, and Ulster at home is not an easy prospect. Ulster will have had their advantage slightly disarmed by having to play this match on a Saturday afternoon rather than their favoured Friday night kick off, but it will still be a tough match. Stade Francais, in second place may be down but are by no means out of the competition, having picked up valuable bonus points in three rounds  of the completion. If Quins slip up then Stade Francais can still run out as Pool winners. The French side play a depleted Scarlets side in Paris at the same time on Saturday and will be pushing for a five point win. Harlequins are in a good position and still have two chances to qualify but a win this weekend for Quins should see off the opposition as well as giving them a very good chance of a decent home tie in the last eight. Let’s hope the French referee Romain Poite is impartial.

Despite being televised, Saturday’s all ticket match is approaching a sell out, although at the time of writing the teams had yet to be announced. Ulster will however be without No.8 Robbie Diack who   fractured a metatarsal in Ulster’s match against Edinburgh last weekend. However, Bryn Cunningham and Simon Danielli are expected to make a return this weekend

The last time Dean Richards visited Ravenhill was with Leicester exactly five years ago, and he will hope that there is not a repeat performance by Ulster who ran out 33-0 winners that day, and the current Ulster squad has two survivors form that victory in Paddy Wallace and Paul Steinmetz, who now coaches the Ulster team.

Ulster have had some indifferent form of late, when interviewed earlier this week Ulster’s Matt Williams commented “It’s frustrating but with a young team you are going to get inconsistency. We’ve beaten the best team in Europe in their own back yard (11-37) and then in Edinburgh we’ve turned up soft for the first 20 minutes. Despite that disappointing display last week against Edinburgh, Paul Steinmetz believes the players will give the right reaction, especially in front of a sell out crowd.“The Edinburgh result was a bit of a blip and it was sad after the Munster game but we’re looking forward to Quins as they are one of the English big guns,” he said. “They are flying high and will want to come here and pick up the points. It’s going to be a challenge.  Steinmetz concluded with “We have a proud record at home in the competition and we are very serious about this game. We want to come away with a win even though we’re not in the running to make the quarter-finals,”

Harlequins have won both meetings between the sides in Europe, the first during the early days of the competition back in 1996 and the second earlier this season with a 42-21 win at the Stoop, but Ravenhill is always difficult ground to visit, and with wind and rain forecast this weekend it will not make Quins efforts any easier.  Harlequins will have benefitted from last week end’s match postponement, with a well earned rest. The matches against Stade Francais certainly took their toll on the team as Quins have not won a match since they beat the French at The Stoop in December. Quins have picked up a reputation for finishing games strongly; thanks to the last gasp win against Stade Francais and the thrilling draw against Leicester. Their ability to force a result luck ran out against Wasps at the start of the year when they were only able to grab a losing bonus point after being 21-3 down.

Harlequins will have significant travelling support again this weekend, and the Cabbage Patch in Twickenham will provide a home from home atmosphere for those supporters who are not travelling. This is a key match for Quins and a win will produce a much needed boost to the post Christmas  gloom of January. We are all looking for another win, no matter how the game is played, so we can enjoy the final pool match against Scarlets with no pressure! 

Enjoy your trip if you are travelling. 

Come on you Quins!