Quins v Bath Preview

By KevT
October 31 2002

 NEC Harlequins take on Bath at The Stoop Memorial Ground on Saturday (Kick Off 2.00pm) in front of a sell out crowd. The match will be covered live on Sky Sports. Both teams have had stuttering starts to the season and will be looking to move away from the relegation area of the table.

Quins make one change from the team that was due to start against Bristol on Sunday (until the match was postponed). Andre Vos makes his debut appearance after landing in England on Wednesday morning and replaces Luke Sherriff at Open Side Flanker. Will Greenwood makes a delayed start at Fly Half for Quins. Injury has ruled out Keith Wood, Pat Sanderson, Roy Winters, Paul Burke, David Slemen and Dan Luger.

Quins Full Back Nathan Williams acknowledges that this is a big match. “We want to get away from the bottom of the table. We are all pumped up about the arrival of Andre (Vos) and weather permitting it should be a good game to watch.”

“Bath are a good side who appear to be a bit low on confidence. They can click at any time because they have great personnel.”

“We’ve analysed their team but to be honest we’ve got to play our own game. With Will (Greenwood) playing Fly Half I’ve got three centres in front of me so hopefully I won’t have to do any tackling.”

In the corresponding fixture last year Quins won 15 – 8 in a very disappointing game for spectators. All of Quins 15 points came from the boots of Paul Burke and Mark Mapletoft with Bath Scrum Half Andy Williams scoring the only try of the game. Quins have only won 5 league and cup ties against Bath in 29 games. A record they will be keen to improve on Saturday.

Bath announce their side on Friday but are unlikely to make any changes to the side that lost narrowly at home to Leeds 20 – 22 on Saturday. Mike Catt starts at Fly Half with Kevin Maggs and Mike Tindall in at centre. Promising utility back and kicker Olly Barkley is preferred at wing.

Speaking at the Bath press day Bath coach Brian Smith said “We were disappointed to lose against Leeds on Saturday, but hopefully we can build on the performance going into the Harlequins game. Their defensive patterns are not dissimilar to Leeds, so our game plan will be similar – but we need to be more precise. We’ve had the ‘dress rehearsal’, as it were.”

“We are a side that doesn’t just lie down– there is no questioning the courage of the side. Our confidence is perhaps down, though, and maybe that is still a hangover from last year. What we are doing at the moment is encouraging players to be more urgent in attack.”

“It is a very important game on Saturday against Quins, before we lose five or six players to the autumn international series. A win would set us up nicely for that period.”

“There’s no reason why we can’t score points against Quins. All things being even, a good performance should mean a result. It didn’t for us on Saturday against Leeds, but hopefully we can put in an even better performance this week and come away with a victory.”

Two of Bath’s three tries last week came from Mike Catt kicks to their wings. Quins will have to watch that tactic particularly as Ben Gollings and Matt Moore aren’t the tallest wings in the Premier League. On his day Olly Barkley can kick very well as London Irish found to the cost earlier in the season and Quins will need to avoid giving away penalties. Danny Grewcock stole a lot of line out ball last week and Alex Codling will have his work cut out to secure decent possession for Quins. Watch out for Quins using the back of the line out to secure quick ball through Diprose and the 6’ 5” Andre Vos. Matt Perry is an excellent Full Back and Bath look a better side following his return from injury. Bath are a dogged side who have drawn two matches at home and only lost matches narrowly this season. French prop Galasso and lock Danny Grewcock are aggressive players but Bath have suffered their fair share of yellow cards this season.

Mike Catt is an excellent Fly Half as Quins found to their cost away at Bath last season where he ran the show. The match up with Will Greenwood on Saturday should provide great entertainment. Two areas where Quins have an advantage over Bath is at wing and back row. Danielli and Barkley aren’t the quickest of wings and Gollings and Moore will have an advantage in speed over them. The Quins back row of Vos, Tiatia and Diprose are more mobile and stronger in the tackle than the Bath back row and it is in this area that I think Quins will gain the advantage. They will try to stop Catt from running the game by cutting down his time and space. If Quins can cut off Mike Catt then they remove a lot of Bath’s fire power.

It’s going to be a very close and competitive match for a sell out crowd. I take Quins to win by less than a converted score.

NEC Harlequins 15. Nathan Williams, 14. Matt Moore, 13. Viliame Satala, 12. Nick Greenstock, 11. Ben Gollings, 10. Will Greenwood, 9. Nick Duncombe, 1. Jason Leonard(Capt.), 2. Tani Fuga, 3. Laurent Gomez, 4. Bill Davison, 5. Alex Codling, 6. Ace Tiatia, 7.Andre Vos, 8. Tony Diprose

Replacements: 16. Karl Rudzki 17. Bruce Starr 18. Jim Evans 19. Luke Sherriff 20. Scott Bemand 21. Rob Jewell 22. David Slemen

Bath (Probable) 15. Matt Perry 14 Simon Danielli 13 Kevin Maggs 12 Mike Tindall 11 Olly Barkley 10 Mike Catt 9 Gareth Cooper 1 Simon Emms 2 Jonathan Humpheys 3 Alessio Galasso 4 Steve Borthwick 5 Danny Grewcock 6 Gavin Thomas 7 Dan Lyle 8 Nathan Thomas