Harlequins v Saracens Preview
By Worried of Whitton
November 11 2004
Round 9 of the Zurich Premiership see NEC Harlequins meet Saracens in another Friday night match with “London neighbours”, kick off at 19.45 hrs . The scheduling of this match is due to the England v Canada match at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.
Still without a Premiership win, this IS a very crucial game for Harlequins. So far this has to be the most frustrating and disappointing season in living memory. Despite the losses we have collected 5 precious bonus points, to keep us in touch with Worcester, just four points above us. In any other season narrow Premiership defeats at the hands of Wasps, Gloucester and Leicester would be taken as a good result. Unfortunately this does not appear to be a normal season, especially when we are public praising our colleagues at London Irish for defeating the team in 11th place without them gaining a bonus point.
At the risk of being drawn into the debate of Mark Evans and his dual roles, he is paid to run the club and that is what he is doing, he has the experience. I do not see a conflict of interest. Harlequins RFC are a business and it is down to the board to respond if they believe that there is an issue. It does not resolve the situation by having a pack of baying “fair weather” supporters, swept up on the back of our European Cup glory, calling for his removal. It is perfectly clear that Mark Evans is not happy with the situation and speaking after the Wasps match “…whatever I say it hurts, it just hurts, it hurts me, the team and the supporters. But we’ve just got to keep doing the right things, it’s the only way, you’ve just got to think that if you keep doing the right things it will turn. It could easily have gone our way tonight but it didn’t”. He added “The team’s not playing badly and the pack’s playing pretty well, which to be honest we weren’t in the first three or four games. It’s very hard to say much about it to be honest guys, we‘ve got to be very strong, keep improving and not be self pitying, we can expect to put a run together.” Things will improve and there is no reason to doubt that will occur on Friday night. Despite the pseudonym, I m not worried about our position, although that would not be the case if we d been loosing heavily and not picking up any points at all.
Due to business commitments, I was not able to get to the match at Wasps last week, but by all accounts it turned out to be yet another frustrating and eventually a disappointing affair. The firework prediction proved correct with rocket in the form of Voyce’s nine second try. Giving Wasps a seven point start to the game is perhaps not the cleverest way to play a match, although the team did make amends, as the match progressed .It seems that we just give away too many penalties, and some how the team needs to learn how the to play the referee better, and swing some more of those 50-50 decisions.
We do not have a poor squad, they are not playing badly and have just come through a run of five really tough games, however, they are just falling short of the result we all crave. Post match, warren Gatland was quoted as saying that Quins just need a bit of luck to start winning. Looking at other boards on the Sportsnetwork site there is a strong consensus that Quins will turn the tide. One Saracens supporter, talking about this Fridays match ”I'm worried about this one. I wasn't at Adams Park, but to lose there by three does not seem to be the performance of a relegation lost cause!”. Even London Irish supporters expect us to break our duck this week.
I’m disappointed to see Greenwood start on the bench for England in their game against Canada, I must admit I m not a big fan of these autumn internationals as they disrupt the domestic season. They have a stale and repetitive format and the matches have no real significance or meaning, other than provide income for the RFU. Naturally we would prefer to see Greenwood play at the Stoop, but perhaps we should look at this from a positive position. After all it takes the pressure from management team selection and allows Deane back in the starting line up and an opportunity to see how he partners James. My belief is that this will be just as dynamic. Scotty has announced an otherwise unchanged starting XV. Continuity is what is required and this team are more than capable of winning.
It is good to see Monye making a welcome return, and I m sure we will see him play some part in the match. We are aware of Cronje’s injury, but it is clear that starting places are being awarded on their current performance, with both Miall and Winters retaining their positions ahead of Maling, who maybe taking a little longer to settle in than we expected. Nick Easter too, has proved a shrewd signing and it is very pleasing to see that he is staying at least until the end of the season, a with an option until June 2006. Saracens will be wary of Harder and Vos, and they know that despite the results Quins are a hard team to beat. I m sure Williams will also have another storming match at the Stoop, and he always seems to play better under flood lights. Diprose too will be there to impress against his old club. Many Saracens still regret his departure to Quins The bench also provides a formidable line up, with the exception of Maling, all well used to playing in the first XV. We must ensure that we watch our kicks from hand and to touch, as Saracens are now solid in this area.
Saracens buoyed up by successes in Europe, have had a mixed season so far in the Premiership. Last week an unsettled Saracens playing home and away at the same time, lost to Bath in a high scoring match, but were able to pick up both a try and losing point bonus. The Saracens pack has had some rebuilding after last week, when Bath pushed them around with ease. Consequently their defence was poor which allowed Bath to score five tries .Saracens were however they were spurred on by their New Zealand outside half Glen Jackson who enabled them to convert a 37-18 deficit into two bonus points. He certainly will be one player that the Quins team we need to watch out for. Saracens are also moaning about the length of their injury list which includes Castaignede, Scarborough, Yates and Bracken. They will also be without Vyvyan on Friday who has been called up for England duty. Sanderson, who I don t think has played for Saracens since his departure from Sale, makes an appearance on the bench, along with Cornus Visagie who is also returning from injury. Saracens however have announced the strongest side they can muster. Although head to head Harlequins have had the upper hand at home against Saracens in their last four meetings at the Stoop, I am not expecting an easy match! Sarries supporters are eyeing up the meeting of Harder and Vaikona
Saracens weaknesses are their defence and also their impatience when attacking, as we have witnessed in previous meetings. Their keenness to move the ball out wide gives the opposition chance to intercept long passes and score. We need to be sure we win our line outs as Fullarton has been causing some damage of late. Their kicking is good so we also must keep that penalty count down.
On Monday night the two “A” teams met in a very tough match which Quins eventually won 8-6
As Prof wrote after last weeks match at Wasps, “The difficult thing is going to be for the players to be able to pick themselves up and come out firing next Friday, it’s the job of the senior players and coaches to do it, it’s also the job for the fans to do it when they take to the pitch on Friday at home” Continuity in the team selection shows massive confidence.
I know a Friday night maybe a chore for those who live further afield but please try to get there as early as you can, start cheering and singing when the teams are warming up and as Scotty has requested “ lots of noise please!”
Come on you Quins!
You will win this one.
Players to Watch: Mel Deane, George Harder, Ceri Jones
Prediction: Close encounter yet again, but MadMax will NOT be playing “Oops.. I did it again!” as the crowds disperse.
NEC Harlequins:
15. Tom Williams, 14.George Harder,13. Daffyd James 12. Mel Deane 11. Simon Keogh, 10. Jeremy Staunton, 9. Steve So’oialo, 1. Mike Worsley, 2. Tani Fuga, 3. Ceri Jones, 4.Roy Winters, 5. Simon Miall, 6. Nick Easter, 7. Andre Vos (c), 8. Tony Diprose
Replacements:
16. James Hayter, 17. Jon Dawson, 18. Simon Maling, 19. Luke Sherriff, 20. Andy Dunne, 21. Ugo Monye, 22. Gavin Duffy
Saracens :
15. Robbie Kydd, 14. Richard Haughton, 13. Ben Johnston, 12. Dan Harris,11. Tevita Vaikona, 10. Glen Jackson, 9. Mosese Rauluni, 1. Nick Lloyd, 2. Raphael Ibanez, 3. Ben Broster, 4. Iain Fullarton, 5. Simon Raiwalui, 6. Taine Randell, 7. David Seymour, 8. Kris Chesney
Replacements:
16. Matt Cairns, 17. Cobus Visagie, 18. Alex Sanderson, 19. Ben Skirving, 20. Morgan Williams, 21. Mark Bartholomeusz, 22. Paul Bailey