Quins have French Mountain to Climb To Progress
By KevT
December 13 2002
NEC Harlequins take on Stade Francais at the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris (6.00pm local time) in the second round second leg of the Parker Pen Cup. Quins will be taking 500 fans to Paris, desperate to see their side put in a better performance than the one that saw them lose 26–0 at The Stoop last week
Quins have a mountain to climb to overcome the 26 point deficit and have named their strongest available team to do just that. Pat Sanderson makes his first start in two months and replaces Luke Sherriff. Paul Burke replaces Will Greenwood at fly half. Will takes a seat on the bench as he has still not shaken off the effects of a dead leg sustained in England’s drubbing of South Africa. Alex Codling is still injured and Jim Evans continues to deputise at second row. Club captain Andre Vos is ineligible for this round of the Parker Pen Cup.
“We were frustrated with the result on Saturday. Having watched the video we dominated the match for the first thirty five minutes.” said Tony Diprose speaking exclusively to Comeallwithin.co.uk. “We gave Stade ten points and then had to play against the wind in the second half.”
I asked Tony if there was any less intensity in the team performance because this wasn’t a league match. “Mark (Evans) thought we were slightly more relaxed. I thought we competed strongly in the first half and really went at them. Our kicking game wasn’t as good. We were certainly looking forward to measuring ourselves against one of the best European teams.”
“Stade Francais were very good defensively and probably the strongest in defence we’ve met this year. They’re very well organised and have the best line out defence we’ve come across. They’re a very good side and should really be in the Heineken Cup.”
I asked how the team approached playing this match when they have a large deficit to make up. “Mark worked us very hard this week to improve our performance. There’s a lot of personal pride at stake. We need to make sure we are in form when we play Leeds in the Cup next week and then we have important matches against Bath and Bristol which could decide if we’re moving up the table or in a difficult position as we were last year. We want to have something to look forward to for the next half of the season. This match can be a start for us.”
“It was good to see Pat Sanderson back last week and Chris Bell. Nick Duncombe and Dan Luger are close to coming back. Certainly I’m looking forward to playing with Pat again and hopefully he can capture the excellent form he had at the start of the season.”
Quins management were satisfied with the performance of the forwards last week but disappointed with the way the backs played. Too much ball was turned over. Basic errors gifted Stade two tries. Nothing can be taken away from the Stade team though who are a well coached and organised team. They play a style of rugby that is at best unfamiliar in France and yet is very effective.
One of the most interesting facts pointed out to me was the fact that all of the bottom six Zurich Premier League clubs lost over the weekend. Perhaps the players slightly stepped off the gas when the European Competition came along. This season the Premier League is the most competitive in its history. The threat of relegation would seem to be focussing minds more on the league than the European competition.
Quins have had a reasonably settled side all season in the forwards but have really struggled with injuries in the backs. This lack of cohesion is really showing in the performances we have seen recently. I’m really looking forward to the time when we can put out Nick Duncombe, Paul Burke, Will Greenwood and Chris Bell in the same side. This hasn’t happened yet.
Nick Mallett announced that a number of changes would be made to the Stade Francais team to play on Saturday. At the time of writing this was not available. All I will say is that Quins will need to retain possession better. With 26 points behind them, Stade are likely to play a more attacking game at home.
We must hope that Mallett is being a little complacent with his team selection this week and that Quins can put pressure on Stade by putting early points on the board.
Quins are in the position where they can go and play this match with no pressure on them which is something they have not been able to do for a while. They can concentrate on playing well and deliver the 500 strong loyal supporters that have made their way across The Channel a performance that they can be proud of.
NEC Harlequins: 15. Nathan Williams 14. Rob Jewell 13. Viliame Satala 12. Chris Bell 11. Matt Moore 10. Paul Burke 9. Scott Bemand 1. Jason Leonard (Capt.) 2. Tani Fuga 3. Laurent Gomez 4. Bill Davison 5. Jim Evans 6. Ace Tiatia 7. Pat Sanderson 8. Tony Diprose
Replacements: 16. Pablo Cardinali 17. Simon Miall 18. Karl Rudzki 19. Luke Sherriff 20. Matthew Powell 21. Seb Fitzgerald 22. Will Greenwood
Stade Francais (last week): 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