Preview: Harlequins vs London Welsh

Everyone recovered from last weekend? 

Not only was there the LDH on last Saturday but apparently the RSPCA was inundated with calls around the Middlesex area of cats up trees with noticeable boot marks on them. What a game. I won’t spend too long poking the embers, as I’m sure we’ve devoured most of the internet content of the game review, but if we play like that 60 minutes again then we’ll be in trouble. On the polar opposite though, if we play like the last 20 minutes for the rest of the season it’ll be champagne time. A reasonable middle ground is probably a fair reflection of what we can expect. Perhaps it was simply the drive and desire of the Pests allied to a rare selection error from CoS. Things certainly changed at the 60 minute mark with noticeable substitutions for both sides, Haskell and Masi going off for them, and Chisholm, Dicko and Guesty coming on for us. Simultaneously robbing Wasps of their inertia and pressure but giving Quins the burst of freshness and space required to play that brand of rugby we aspire to. 

Next up for us, the new boys, London Welsh, a proud old club, finally up after a fraught wait to see if their heroics at the end of the season would be rewarded. 

Welsh have certainly been through the ringer in the past couple of years, bouncing back from receivership in 2009; they were rescued by, Neil Hollinshead. They finally decided – or were pushed – on their home ground, choosing the Kassam stadium in Oxford. Quite a way away from their most recent of homes at Old Deer Park in Richmond, what a nice away fixture that would have been for us, a short walk down the A316... 

Given little time to get things in place for the beginning of the season back in the big league, Welsh recruited heavily in a short space of time. Bringing in talented journeymen and experienced players, not to mention a certain permatan Welshman. The first couple of games were always going to be a tough ask for Welsh as soon as the fixture list was announced. 

After watching their game against Tigers last weekend, there are grounds for some optimism from the Welsh faithful (be they in Oxford or Richmond!). Tigers, whilst only playing at their best for short bursts during the 80 minutes, were held up on many occasions by sheer Welsh tenacity. Of particular note during Welsh’s performance was the irascible ex-Shark, Briggs, who showed up prominently in the loose and impressed with the amount of ground covered, he also marshalled a brand new front row together in the face of the usual powerful Leicester triumvirate. The showings of full back, Arscott – formerly of Worcester, and Joe Ajuwa show that Welsh can shift it when they get the ball in space. Gordon Ross also filled in admirably for Henson, showing all of his experience with savvy game management and he definitely seemed to zero in on the potential weakness of Youngs line out throw. Whilst well beaten by Leicester there were signs of what they can do when things come together, and this will only grow as their team begins to get to know each other. That is, IF they can avoid having their enthusiasm dowsed in the first few weeks of the arduous step up to the Premiership. 

One can only hope that after being bitten last week, Quins will approach this game with nothing left in the dressing room, and committing more to the breakdown area, which seemed deficient for so much of last weeks game. Some interesting decisions for the management team this week, especially given the performance of our substitutes last week. All three, Chisholm, Guest and Dickson, deserve recognition of their efforts in swinging the game round. The experiment with Lowe on the wing may work against clubs who don’t double up two of the quickest wingers in the league on him, but I think Chisholm has shown enough to be given the role if Ugo isn’t fit. Curiously, after quite a few appearances last season, Sam Smith wasn’t considered to replace Ugo last week, possibly not up to match speed yet? Who knows? However with Ugo fit this week young Ross misses out on the bench, quite a shame. 

Danny Care was given a pretty torrid time by England team mate, James Haskell, last week. However he wasn’t able to show what he could do once Haskell had been subbed, as he was also replaced by an energetic Karl Dickson. Dickson played exceptionally well and got NEv and the back line moving, CoS obviously saw enough to give him a start this week. Also dropped was Matt Hopper who moves to the bench, so often touted as the most skilful player at the club; he really has to make further strides on his positioning and reading of the game. It wasn’t just Lowe’s fault for a couple of the 1st half Wasps tries we conceded down the wing last week, Hopper had been drawn out of position on each occasion, leaving them an extra man to bring in down the flank. Whilst his tackling has improved, CoS obviously doesn’t see any reason to break up our successful midfield axis of JTH and Lowe. 

The only other changes being Nick Easter moving to the bench following Tom Guests impact last week and an exceptionally young replacement front three. What with Collier and Lambert being injured in the A team game against Saracens we go in with Marfo, Sinckler and Buchanan! 

So what bodes to be a balmy Septembers evening of rugby beckons, we look forward to welcoming the newcomers to the league, and hopefully they’ll bring their choir who we all saw on the Olympics! 

And finally... thanks Lady Gaga for mucking up the normal Saturday routine! The least she could have done was come out with the LV girls dressed in lamb chops as way of apology surely? 

Quins by 12!