Preview: NEC Harlequins v Bath Rugby GP (h)

By Worried of Whitton
January 4 2007

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas NEC Harlequins return to The Stoop for the first of a Premiership double header against Bath Rugby. Kick off at is at 3.00pm on Saturday January 6th. The two teams have already met twice this season in the European Challenge Cup competition.

Bath hold the upper hand from the previous meetings by beating Quins at home and away, 18-24 at The Stoop and 20-14 down at The Recreation Ground. The closeness of these results, and the knowledge gained by playing Bath so recently should hold the key for Harlequins to reverse these scores and take the spoils in the Guinness Premiership matches.

The pantomime season now seems to be over. The Quins seasonal performance of  “Sleeping Beauty”, opened at The Stoop back on December 22^nd against Saracens. The soporific Harlequins team, unforgivably gave the opposition a huge early advantage with a gift of two festive tries. The Quins fight back although valiant was always going to be an up hill battle so  there was sheer elation when they eventually gained the lead late in the second half. The script, however, deemed that there was not to be a happy ending, when a third gifted try by a poor Quins defence allowed the visitors a lucky win 16- 20. Quins had to settle for the booby prize of albeit a precious losing bonus point. The pantomime continued in the form of uncontested scrums against Worcester Warriors at Sixway’s between Christmas and New Year, although it  home would be more charitable o say that it was the home side that appeared to be asleep in this match. Forgoing a winning bonus point Quins won the match 20-27, and continued their generous nature by donating a losing bonus point to Worcester, when the final penalty kick was missed.

Back to the Seventh Day of Christmas, and the pantomime continued against Newcastle Falcons. A dominate Quins steered their way to a 10-0 lead half way through the first half, following a superb debut try for Aston Croall, and with the visitors having there numbers depleted by a sin binning, it all looked to be going well for Harlequins. “Oh no it isn’t!”  is the instant reply. Some how the team fell asleep and once more gifted two tries to the visitors in quick succession. The first was through a leaky defence. The second was even more unforgivable as a Quins attack deep inside the Newcastle half fell apart following an intercepted pass from Mehrtens. With the shouts of “behind you!” as Newcastle’s Gesinde (who is no sprinter) trundled towards the try line with Mike Brown in hot pursuit, he managed to off load the ball to Winter and suddenly a ten point lead became a five point deficit. Another penalty and Quins went in at half time 13-15 down. The pantomime, however, came to an unexpected, abrupt and most welcome end during the half time interval. It was just minutes into the second half when our “Prince Charming”, Dave Strettle, broke the spell with a well worked try chasing a kick up field. Strettle went on for a hat trick of tries amongst the twenty nine unanswered second half points that sent the supporters home very happy and, restored Harlequins position to eighth place in the Premiership.

This was a very good result, and was our second “double” of the season. Indeed not only did Harlequins collect winning bonus point, in their thumping win, but for the first time this season we now have a positive points difference, whereas the team above us and the four teams below all have a negative points difference. Quins at +16 also have a better difference than that of Sale above in sixth place at +13. This has to be tempered with the continued need to win, but there is a feeling that a corner has been turned over the Christmas period whereby Quins have learnt to hold on to their lead and close out the opposition to hold on to win. A prolonged winning streak is required as we move into Round 13 of the Guinness Premiership, at home to Bath. This is the home leg of a back to back set of matches that all the premiership teams play this weekend with the second match scheduled for the weekend of January 27^th / 28^th after a two week break to complete the preliminary rounds of the European Cup competitions. The lower half of the Premiership table remains tight, especially with Worcester’s win at Northampton and Newcastle’s loss at The Stoop has kept both teams in the relegation zone. Newcastle have a game in hand, but it is an away match at Gloucester!

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	PD	BP	Pts
1	Bristol Rugby	12	9	1	2	246	190	+56	4	42
2	Leicester Tigers	12	8	1	3	320	248	+72	7	41
3	Gloucester Rugby	11	8	1	2	252	192	+60	1	35
4	London Wasps	12	6	0	6	293	232	+61	9	33
5	Saracens	12	6	1	5	316	240	+76	6	32
6	Sale Sharks	12	6	0	6	254	241	+13	5	29
7	London Irish	12	6	0	6	223	241	-18	2	26
8	NEC Harlequins	12	5	0	7	263	247	+16	6	26
9	Bath Rugby	12	5	0	7	241	300	-59	4	24
10	Newcastle Falcons	11	4	0	7	223	289	-66	4	20
11	Northampton Saints	12	4	0	8	187	297	-110	3	19
12	Worcester Warriors	12	2	0	10	187	288	-101	5	13

 

The elation of last weekend win must be tempered with the fact that we have to beat Bath at home and away to maintain our position in the table. The two teams are adjacent in the division, but Quins are two points above Bath courtesy of the two Christmas bonus points and of course have a far superior points difference. This advantage would be lost if we were to lose at home on Saturday. A win for Quins is likely to leave Bath in ninth and Quins a possible move to 6^th or 7^th position. The other matches this weekend once more throw up some interesting fixtures and bearing in mind these are repeated in three weeks time January could easily decide the shape of the table for the end of the season. Worcester, Newcastle and Northampton on their current position all have tough fixtures.

Harlequins must not be complacent in their next three matches. After their two games against Bath, in which a win will be hard fought, Quins are away to Northampton on February 17^th, and this match will be the final match against opposition that are currently below Quins in the table. Their remaining seven matches will be against the seven teams currently above them and include away visits to Leicester and Gloucester.

Bath also put in a creditable performance last weekend against Wasps at the Recreation Ground by “winning in the rain” and drowning their opposition 30-19, although there was no bonus point. Events at the Recreation Ground last  Monday seemed to reflect those at The Stoop as Bath raced away to a thirteen point lead. Wasps chipped away with three penalties, and eventually took the lead through a converted penalty try early in the second half. This reignited Bath who drew level through long range penalty from Malone and further points were added through tries by Maddock and Berne, which sent Wasps home without any points and down to fourth in the table. The clouds however, continue to sit above Bath this week with Danny Grewcock and Lee Mears both on citing charges for alleged stamping offences over the Christmas s period. If found guilty, they will not be playing this weekend, this will of course benefit Quins, who also have the added home advantage of a lush verdant pitch rather than the pools of mud that Bath call home. Additionally Bath have not traveled at all  well in the Premiership this season, most recently losing just a few miles from home at Bristol over the Christmas holiday.

If they are to win Quins will need to step up another level to beat Bath. With just the added injury to Jim Evans on Saturday I expected to see a very similar looking team to the one that beat Newcastle to run out, but they need to concentrate and step up a gear. We need the win and cannot and should not rely on the other results around us to help.

 

Come on You Quins!