Preview: Sale Sharks (a) in the Premiership

By Worried of Whitton
November 23 2006

The third consecutive Friday night match for NEC Harlequins sees them return ‘oop North but this time to the left hand side of the country. They meet Sale Sharks at Edgeley Park on Friday November 24th kick off is at 19.45.

With a month to go, this is the penultimate Premiership match before Christmas as we return to Anglo Welsh and European Cup action over the next three weeks. After three straight wins in the Premiership arriving on the back of two European Cup wins, confidence continues to grow a pace at Harlequins. What looked to be an expected away loss, just three weeks ago has now become the firm prospect of an away win.

During November Harlequins have climbed from eleventh place and joint bottom in the table, the relative dizzy heights of seventh, heading the group of six teams that make up the lower half of the table. Whilst there are only three points separating five clubs, Harlequins have significantly improved their points difference tally up to just -9, in recent weeks. This is far better than the next best negative difference of -44. This has been achieved as a result of our superb defensive displays, and if we hadn’t gifted two soft tries to Northampton the points for/against difference would be positive, a factor that will prove to be a bonus over the next few weeks, as the teams in the lower half of the league jostle for positions above the drop zone. The Sale game this week is another crucial step on the Quins march up the Premiership table. The four teams immediately above have, for the time being broken away, with a gap of seven points (two wins) between Harlequins and this weeks’ opponents fifth placed Sale (Saracens also have 22 points) At the top Gloucester and Bristol have broken clear, and battle for supremacy on Friday night.

Below Harlequins are Newcastle, who beat Sale last Friday, Northampton, London Irish and Bath. Coincidentally these four teams meet each other this weekend with Bath at home to Newcastle and Irish at home to Northampton, so irrespective of the results if Quins were to lose at Sale they would only drop to ninth. Worcester who were beaten by Quins last week are now nine points adrift of Bath a gap of three wins, and their plight is not looking good. Management changes at Sixways this week have been implemented to halt the slide, and I have a niggling feeling that our away match at Worcester will be a banana skin with the home side winning. We never do well away from home at Christmas. I still believe that it was the draw away to Saracens two years ago that eventually cost us our Premiership status. Reading the message boards of Worcester, Bath and London Irish their supporters are less than happy and there is much frustration about all their recent performances, and it is clear to see that of the bottom six clubs that it is Harlequins who are on the rise, as their relegation worries ease and they look to continued success on Friday night.

On the back of last week's home defeat by Newcastle, and a string of injuries to their players Sale Sharks’ defence of their Premiership title has taken a big knock off course and this was compounded last weekend with further serious injuries to Charlie Hodgson and Andrew Sheridan in addition to that of Jason White in the International matches. Of course we wish all these players speedy recoveries, but Harlequins need to follow the example of Newcastle, to turn this adversity to their advantage, and with Sale further compromised with Cueto and Jones on England duty this weekend there is probably no better time for Quins to collect their second away win in the North in as many weeks, however no one is underestimating the strength of Sale, who will still be able to field, Chabal, Robinson and Lund. Unconfirmed reports state that Lund may also be joining the England squad and Chabal was “absent” last weekend.

The omens appear to be very good for Quins who will be looking to repeat their epic performance from November 2004 when they won 13-19 at Edgeley Park on a cold Friday night. The two clubs also meet recently in the  EDF Anglo Welsh Cup at The Stoop at the beginning of October, when despite their best performance to date, Harlequins lost by a single point to Sale Sharks. The final score, 27 – 28, was very close and the result could have been so different had the boot of fly half Adrian Jarvis not missed thirteen points. As AlanQuin wrote in his match report, “the disappointment at the loss, however, is tempered by what was far and away the best performance by Quins this season.  They played good rugby, moving the ball wide at most opportunities and with good handling and support quickly to the breakdown.  They outscored their opponents by four tries to three and they showed real determination.” and since that match (ignore Bristol) Harlequins have not looked back, and the boot of Adrian Jarvis has helped get us where we are today.

The press reported that Newcastle were unrecognizable from the rudderless ineffectual team that lost to Harlequins. With more energy focus and discipline that caught Sale unawares as they took a slender 4 point lead at half time after scoring the only try of the first half. Sale were kept in the match by the kicking of Larrechea, who proved a thorn in Quins side back in October. His kicking lead Sale to within a point of the visitors just after the interval before Newcastle pulled away with a second converted try early in the second half.  A further penalty a piece saw Newcastle winners by 18-26. Sale did not score any tries all their points came from penalties. Further ignominy ensued when Sale had their prop Stuart Turner sent off for illegal use of his knee, aptly in injury time, on Brent Wilson, for which he was cited and has subsequently been banned for one week, thus missing this home match, adding yet more agony to Sale. Harlequins will need to be aware of a potential back lash on Friday night. Sale Sharks CEO, Niels de Vos said on Monday this week “The international period has been brutal to Sale Sharks this autumn. Sport can be cruel sometimes, and the measure of true champions is the ability to triumph against the odds at times. I met with the coaching staff this morning, and they are more determined than ever to meet this challenge head on, starting with getting back to winning ways this Friday night at Edgeley Park against Harlequins”. Director of Rugby Philippe Saint Andre added, “This is a terrible blow for the players. Of course their loss is a blow to our aspirations to retain our title, and also to our chances in the EDF and Heineken Cups. However, I have a strong squad here at Sale, and opportunities will now open up for some of our younger players to make a name for themselves. We will not be making excuses – we must instead be inspired by adversity.” With Seviali'i also missing and three front line props out Sale will have to dig deep. 

Fortunately for Quins there are not as many injury worries, match bans or indeed International call ups to worry about. A well deserved third successive premiership win left Worcester firmly rooted at the bottom. The poor weather did have an unsettling affect on the match with a lot of kicking from both sides in the wet conditions.  A delicately weighted grubber kick from Jarvis into the corner allowed Strettle to run in and collect for Quins first try. A Jarvis penalty stretched the lead before Worcester’s Drahm started to claw back some points. Gomarsall orchestrated the game perfectly from the base of the scrum and with improved kicking from Jarvis Quins began to dominate. A fight back by Worcester was repelled by some resolute defending. After the break Drahm missed two penalty kicks for the luckless Warriors and when Horsman was binned for punching Keogh, Quins pressed their advantage through Luscombe who walked through a sleepy defence and whose converted try put the result beyond doubt. Once again there are unlikely to be many changes this week to Quins line up, who will be able to field their preferred choice of players.

Fate appears to have dealt Quins a good hand this week. Harlequins should be able to pick a squad which will prove more than a match for the younger Sale players, who incidentally beat Worcester 22-21 in their 'A' game earlier this week. The confidence is there to predict an away win, probably by between seven and ten points, but whatever the result both sets of supporters will be comforted to know that the match is being refereed by the well respected Ashley Rowden.

 

 Come on you Quins!

 

NEC Harlequins: 
Mike Brown, David Strettle, Hal Luscombe, Mel Deane, Simon Keogh, Adrian Jarvis, Andy Gomarsall, Ceri Jones, Tani Fuga, Mike Ross, Ollie Kohn, Jim Evans, Andre Vos, Paul Volley (Capt.), Nick Easter
Replacements: 16. Jimmy Richards, 17. Lorne Ward, Nicolas Spanghero, Chris Hala'ufia, Danny Care, Andrew Mehrtens, Gavin Duffy

Sale Sharks:
Jason Robinson, Ben Foden, Mark Taylor, Lee Thomas, Oriol Ripol, Daniel Larrechea, Richard Wigglesworth, Eifion Lewis Roberts, Sebastien Bruno, Barry Stewart, Dean Schofield, Chris Day, Nathan Bonner Evans, Magnus Lund, Sebastien Chabal
Replacements: Andy Titterrell, Ben Evans/Martin Halsall, Ben Lloyd/Marc Jones, Michael Hills, Sililo Martens, Chris Mayor/Steve Hanley, David Blair
 

Referee: Ashley Rowden
Touch judges: Steve Savage, Robin Goodliffe