NORTHAMPTON SAINTS 24 - 3 HARLEQUINS
By Alanquin
January 7 2012
In rugby as in life there are banana skins. At Franklins Gardens, playing their third Aviva Premiership match in ten days, Harlequins found one, fell over on their collective face and lost to Northampton by 24 – 3. It was a comprehensive defeat with Quins outdone both in pace and physicality, accuracy and discipline.
It started well enough for Quins. They started with their usual pace, but such threats as they were able to pose were snuffed out by errors. A promising attack ended with an accidental offside and although they won the scrum against the head, a penalty conceded at a breakdown allowed Northampton back into Quins territory. Another offence on the twenty-two allowed Lamb an easy score opener from the kicking tee.
Perhaps an indication of more errors to come followed when Clegg kicked the restart across the dead ball line to provide Northampton an attacking scrum from which they mounted serious pressure on the defence. A series of penalties were kicked to touch producing attacking lineouts followed by mauls which needed very determined defence and inevitably a further penalty was conceded. A warning to Quins’ captain, Robshaw, from referee Pearson resulted ultimately in a yellow card for Nick Easter. In the course of the renewed Saints’ attacks Lamb added to the score with a drop goal.
Northampton renewed the attacks with precision and pace and aided by the extra man Foden squeezed in to the corner evading the attentions of Brown. Lamb misse with the conversion attempt but added a penalty a minute or two later to increase the lead to 14 – 0. A charged down kick gave Quins a rare attacking chance and a penalty on the Northampton twenty-two gave Clegg a simple kick to gather three points. But Lamb was successful with another penalty just before the interval for aa half time score of 17 – 3.
Rory Clegg is having a bad time with penalty kicks. When he succeeded with the final and match winning kick against Exeter it was easy to believe that the previous five misses were an aberration. When he missed two more in the first ten minutes of the second half confidence visibly began to drain away from the visitors. Another concerted attack drove Quins back into their own twenty-two and slick passing and pace put Wilson in on the left for another try which Lamb duly converted. The remainder was almost irrelevant as even a yellow card for a Northampton lock produced nothing on the score sheet. |
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea, admitted they had been out-muscled by Saints. They were just more physical than we were and they won the contact and collision area. They got momentum. If you come here and don't get momentum then you're going to be in for a tough night. They were outstanding tonight and we weren't. For the first time this season there was an 80 minutes where we haven't actually performed, but that happens." "We started the game pretty well but we didn't get any score and we offloaded when we shouldn't have, and we coughed the ball up," said O'Shea."They got the lead and gave the crowd and themselves a bit of a buffer to relax and play.” He again emphasised that you do not become a bad side by losing nor a great side by winning. |
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Too many of the comments on Sports Network come straight out of the "amateur" school of punditry which, sadly, is too often a copy of the "professional" school as practised by Sky, ESPN and the rest of the media.
The protocol goes as follows ... if Team "X" win then automatically all their players are brilliant and should play for their country ... if Team "Y" loses then automatically all of their players are rubbish and should never grace a rugby field again !
I exaggerate ... but only slightly !
The first thing to say is that Saints fully deserved the victory ... they dominated the set-piece; they took their chances to score tries and they kicked their penalties.
The difference between Quins in 2011 and the pre-2011 vintage is that last year Quins converted their possession & territory into points, especially in the "Red Zone".
On Friday night Quins dominated the first 10-15 minutes of each half but failed to put any points on the board.
Quins' high tempo game is based upon getting a fast start, putting points on the board and making the other team play "catch-up" rugby and relying on ferocious defence to keep them out. On Friday night that didn't happen but the scoreboard was unkind to Quins ... they left a lot of points out on the field in terms of kickable penalties that were missed and they failed to convert opportunities in the Saints' 22. Quins were forced to play "catch-up" rugby in the 2nd half and they showed how difficult it is.
Watching the ESPN coverage after the game highlighted that Quins did get a raw deal on occasions from the officials based on the comments from Austin Healey & Ben Kay during the game but the better team won on the night.
Andy Gomersal said on Twitter ... "Big win 4 Saints v mighty Quins. U get 1 of those every season, where nothing goes to plan. Bin it - move on quick smart."
Some of the ESPN comments about individual players on ESPN were a bit comical. Having tipped Lee Dickson for selection to the EPS during the week then Austin Healey was desperate to justify his decision.
Dickson must have come out of the game thinking ... "How come ?" ... How come my team won 24-3 ? How come our scrum was on top ? How come I was still the 2nd best scrum-half on the pitch ?"
Dickson will undoubtedly be in the EPS, he will be ahead of Joe Simpson in Stuart Lancaster's thinking, but he can only play behind a dominant pack. When Saints struggle up front then Dickson goes AWOL as evidenced in Saints' 2 biggest games last year - the Aviva play-off semi-final 2nd half v Tigers & the Heineken Cup Final 2nd half v Leinster. Care has spent his entire professional career at Leeds, Quins & England living off scraps so he knows how to deal with poor ball.
Today's Rugby Paper gave both Dickson & Care a 7 ... one was in a winning team, the other was on the losing side ... as the Americans say "go figure" !
Think back a couple of years when London Irish had a good season. At that time the rugby pundits (amateur & professional) were pushing certain Irish players for England honours ... Hodgson, Kennedy, Armitage (x2) ... forgive me but how many of those are now established England players?
Currently Quins & Saracens players are getting the same treatment from the pundits (amateur & professional). The trick in selection is being able to spot who is playing well in a losing team and who is being carried along by a winning team.
Still a long way to go this season and I expect Quins to bounce back strongly next week against Gloucester.
COME ON YOU QUINS !!
Quote:bra'tac of chulak
Dickson must have come out of the game thinking ... "How come ?" ... How come my team won 24-3 ? How come our scrum was on top ? How come I was still the 2nd best scrum-half on the pitch ?"
Very amusing. Care was rattled after 5 minutes and didn't do anything positive from there on it.
The only Quins on that pitch who looked like they deserved their places on that pitch were Robshaw and JTH. The rest were made to look thoroughly second rate by their opposite numbers. Every single one of them.
Quote:Mr B from Chulack
Just a different perspective on Friday night's game
No, indeed not.
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
Quote:Chris BQuote:bra'tac of chulak
Dickson must have come out of the game thinking ... "How come ?" ... How come my team won 24-3 ? How come our scrum was on top ? How come I was still the 2nd best scrum-half on the pitch ?"
Very amusing. Care was rattled after 5 minutes and didn't do anything positive from there on it.
The only Quins on that pitch who looked like they deserved their places on that pitch were Robshaw and JTH. The rest were made to look thoroughly second rate by their opposite numbers. Every single one of them.
You must have missed Mike Brown...
Quote:I saw him get skinned by Foden if that's what you mean.Quinky KinQuote:You must have missed Mike Brown...Chris BQuote:bra'tac of chulak
Dickson must have come out of the game thinking ... "How come ?" ... How come my team won 24-3 ? How come our scrum was on top ? How come I was still the 2nd best scrum-half on the pitch ?"
Very amusing. Care was rattled after 5 minutes and didn't do anything positive from there on it.
The only Quins on that pitch who looked like they deserved their places on that pitch were Robshaw and JTH. The rest were made to look thoroughly second rate by their opposite numbers. Every single one of them.
The Quins fans saying Brown is better are very reminicent of Leinster fans making a song and dance about Nacewa... Yeah, he's pretty good. Nowhere near as good though.
The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George
Brown wasn't blocked. Because Quins were short numbered on that side, Brown had to defend much narrower than the Saints attacking line.
Downey doesn't run a blocking line and within a couple of steps, Foden has emerged level with James. Mike Brown was left with two much work to do as your left wing wasn't in position.
I agree that Downey's position stops Brown getting to Foden straight away, but that is because Mike is defending to the inside of Downey to start with and then has to get to the outside of him when Lamb's juggled loop pass goes over the top of both of them. Brown was defending too narrow because of lack of numbers and the miss pass to Foden left him out of position.
I agree with those above who thought Robshaw was your stand out player. As much as I'd like a Saintly England Captain, I do think that your Rob will be picked instead.
I thought the fact that he got as close as he did to making the tackle was pretty impressive under the circumstances.
But of all Quins players, the only one who unequivocally advanced his England cause on Friday was Robshaw.
As someone said on this thread, or another, we played like idiots at home against the Scarlets, the odd bad game happens.
Last weekend you were affected by the Man Utd (now Man City) syndrome. You are top of the league and a big scalp for any side that plays you. We were playing at home, with 12500 home fans shouting us on, needing the points to try and secure a top four place. You were away with a small support, already with a healthy (ish) points cushion. Now tell me which team would have had the greater incentive?
unfortunately a few delusionals seem to be having difficulty in accepting this.
there
