Preview: NEC Harlequins v Bath Rugby ECC (a)

By Worried of Whitton
December 14 2006

This week sees the return leg of the European Challenge Cup and NEC Harlequins return to the Recreation Ground for their match against Bath Rugby. Kick off is at 2.15pm.

Harlequins surrendered their position at the top of the pool table at The Stoop last weekend, loosing 18 - 24 to Bath with what can only be described as a very poor performance lack lustre performance, from a team that showed enormous promise on the team sheet.  What a disappointment it was! And as AlanQuin succinctly stated in his report “It was a match that could and should have been won had not missed tackles and unforced errors contributed to Quins downfall.”

The Pool 4 table from ERC after last weeks matches looks like this;

 

 

The loss last week, at home on a verdant pitch, makes a win imperative this week on what is likely to be a very muddy Recreation Ground. Quins were expected to show some fine running rugby last week, but they never looked like scoring a try and the only running that was achieved was in chasing after the Bath attack after they had shredded our defence.  Until last week I had been very impressed by the high standard of our “they shall not pass” defence, but last Saturday

our defence was woeful. In many home matches this season Quins have halted the opposition advance in line with my seat in block FF in the Lexus Stand. Bath however, managed to break through this virtual line of defence and then gain another 10 to 15 meters before a tackle finally felled the attacking player. In contrast Bath managed to snatch three tries, even if the first one did appear to be the result of a forward pass, and their third try appears to have been the result of confusion as to whether the final whistle had been blown. Prior to this try a score of 18-19 might well have been a more representative score, after Quins had clawed their way back after successfully kicking a number of penalties, briefly taking the lead for all of two minutes. Indeed had Jarvis been able to extend this lead from his missed penalty kick we may well have seen a home win, but the fizz seemed to go out of the Quins attack from that point onwards, as bath continued to capitalise on playing the referee.

Harlequins go into this match knowing that by the end of the weekend their hopes of progressing further in this competition could be all but over. A win for Bath, will naturally extend their lead at the top and could well see Quins slump into third position as it is expected that Connacht will have no trouble despatching Montpellier in France. Last Friday night saw Connacht beat Montpellier by 26 – 13 and pick up a try bonus point. This return leg is also being played on Friday night so both Quins and Bath will know what they have to do on Saturday afternoon. Bath also has the tricky away leg in Galway to look forward to in January.

The competition rules state that the Pool winners and best three best placed runners qualify for the quarter finals. As the Pool Tables currently stand, half way through the competition, the three teams who currently meet that criterion are Newport, Glasgow and Worcester who share eleven points. I am not writing Harlequins off at this stage, after all it is “our competition” but they need to put in a vastly improved performance this week if they are to keep their quarter final qualification hopes alive.

I certainly hope the travelling Quins supporters will have more to cheer about this week, other wise it will be long journey home. I‘ll not be in Bath for the match, although I will be on the M4 travelling west on Saturday, as I journey to Cardiff to collect my son from university for Christmas, we had contemplated taking a detour on the way home at junction 18 and going to the match until we saw the prohibitive price of match tickets, the expense was difficult to justify so close to Christmas. I agree that the Rec is the most picturesque venue in English rugby but the spectators are paying to watch a game of rugby not the scenery and unlike the Stoop there is no “match day experience”on offer”.

With two Premiership games against Bath to play in January, Harlequins will have to have learnt from these two ECC games to ensure that they at least come away with the precious league points.

As is the norm this season the team is announced late Friday morning after the final training session, long after this preview has been written. I expect to see a few changes from last week and would hope at least to see the return of Vos, and Gomarsall, and also Brown if he is fit enough. With all the rain in the West of England this week it is likely that there will not be a lot of running so we could also expect Hal’ufia to start so he can blast a way through to the try line.

The result is too close to call, if the Quins team are truly remorseful over the result last week, then they have it in them to win.

 

Come on You Quins!

 

 

 

Referee: Andrew MacPherson

Touch Judges: Iain Ramage and Ronnie Dumma