Preview: NEC Harlequins v London Irish

By Worried of Whitton
April 5 2007

The Guinness Premiership returns this week with the first of the final group of matches that completes the 2006-2007 season. This week euro elite* NEC Harlequins take on their “local” rivals from the furthest reaches of the Thames Valley, London Irish.

The match on Easter Saturday, April 7th, sponsored by Lindt kicks off at The Stoop is at 15.00.  A near full house is expected with a lot more chocolate than is usually seen on the famous quartered shirt.

After 19 rounds of GP action the winners and losers of this year’s Premiership have yet to be decided, and it could all go down to the last day of the season. This has to be one of the closest championships in many years. Ironically, our visitors London Irish could decide who wins the relegation battle as their final two matches see them play Worcester and Northampton, while Quins entertain Sale again on the last day!

London Irish and Harlequins currently sit in mid table respectability, in sixth and seventh positions respectively. With three games to play, their final positions in this year’s Premiership are far from assured such is the closeness of this season’s championship. Depending on the results of the final three games Quins could finish as high as 3^rd and as low as 12^th place, whilst Irish could finish between 2^nd and 11^th, and therefore they have already retained there Premiership status. Quins still need a further 3 points to reach safety and these points can just as easily be picked up through there own endeavours, as by either Worcester and/or Northampton failing to pick up precious points - both are away this weekend.

* Leicester have one point deducted for fielding an ineligible player

The two teams meet way back in September at Twickenham to kick off the season in the now what appears to be, annual “London Double Header”. It was a scrappy but tight match to start the season, and London Irish were gifted the win when Quins gave away a needless penalty in front of the posts at the end of the match, after they had snatched the lead through a controversial try scored by Ceri Jones. Indeed it was continued indiscipline that marred their next five games, leaving Quins without a win well into October. Thankfully that is now history as Quins turned their season around. It is worthy of note that this turnaround has contributed to Quins picking up at least one point in every first XV match, including ECC matches, they have played since losing away to Bristol on October 15^th in the Premiership. As such Quins have already garnered nine bonus points from their nineteen Premiership games this season. This tally includes a point for the astonishing feat of putting four tries past Gloucester at Kingsholm three weeks ago.

In contrast London Irish who have, so far, won more matches than Quins this season have only collected a meager three bonus points from all their games to date, the lowest tally of any club in the Premiership. Irish have a history of failing to pick up larger numbers of bonus points. In looking at their record this season the majority of matches they have played have been won by a small margin, including their 21-20 win over Quins at the start of the season, generally giving their opposition a bonus point. Those games they have lost have generally been by a greater than seven point margin, although two of their bonus points have come from a narrow loss. Their win at home to Newcastle produced a try bonus point. It is an issue that has been discussed on “The Craic”, with the understanding that it is the lack of losing bonus points that is the cause of there lower than expected league position at this stage of the season. It is the fact that they haven't been able to fight for a bonus point even when under pressure. As Steve S went on to say, “All our 7 losses since then have been by a greater margin than 7, which is a remarkable statistic.”, remarkably poor, and suggesting that there has been a lack of willingness in the team to fight on and make the best of lost causes. In contrast, Quins have played for the full eighty+ minutes throughout the season ensuring the maximum points available as the game comes to an end. This was a lesson learned from their sojourn last year through ND1 last year, when bonus points were a must in every game to keep on track for promotion. Another contributor of their lost points has been due to the fact that London Irish have played the whole season without a reliable kicker, which, as we have also seen with Northampton this season, at this level it simply isn't good enough.

Both teams lost and appeared to have crashed in their last matches with Quins going down 34 -25 at Gloucester, although some pride was salvaged from scoring four tries. Despite fronting up to and seeing off the mugging tactics of Wasps at home a week earlier, London Irish were blown away by the shock and awe tactics of Saracens that saw them 0-17 down in just 15 minutes, final score 7 -22. This was a similar scenario to the one experience at The Stoop a few days before Christmas, where unlike Irish, Quins regained their composure and fought back narrowly missing out on a home win, but salvaging a bonus point. Harlequins v London Irish is always an eagerly awaited encounter and the matches always have that a edge, with two sets of very passionate supporters eager to win the spoils. The last time the two sides meet at The Stoop was exactly two years ago (April 9^th) when London Irish won 20-25. Such was the home side disappointment with the result that this is the only match for which no match report exists in the CAW archives. Quins last beat London Irish at The Stoop in September 2003 winning 15-10. Many Irish fans have of course already experienced the new improved Stoop with the Lexus Stand as they played here last May in the ECC cup final against Gloucester.

Both clubs have seen a number of changes in the seven months since the two teams last met “across the 316” at HQ, many of which would not have seemed plausible back in September 2006. In his match report of the Double Header AlanQuin wrote “It was surprising, too, that Duffy was left on the bench as Brown had brought little to the party except the Irish try.” but how circumstances have changed in just seven months. Brown has since put in some remarkable performances this season, not only for Quins but also in the England U20s, surely his call up to the first team squad can only be weeks away. Brown has become first choice for the number fifteen shirt whilst in his wake, Duffy has already left Quins and returned to Connacht. George Harder who also played that day has since left Quins for France. Adrian Jarvis was a late replacement for the injured Mehrtens, and has since featured as the first choice No 10 in most of Quins games this season, as his confidence grew. Mehrtens went on for an operation on his injured knee and more recently has featured in a number of 2^nd XV games, in order to get match practice. Those of us who watched him in the second s match down at Sunbury a couple of weeks ago saw the old Mehrtens magic as he kept the Irish pinned down deep in their half as the match drew to a close his Quins future has still to be decided but I think we would all be delighted if his contact was renewed. I hope he plays this weekend.

Who would have thought that we would see London Irish skipper, captain England in two of the Six Nations matches, and that their No. 10 Shane Geraghty would have such memorable debut against France. Equally it was not expected that our very own Nick Easter and David Strettle would both also get to play and wear the England shirt at Twickenham, and for Strettle to score a magnificent try on his debut at Croke Park against Ireland.

London Irish will meet a very much improved Harlequins team to the one they met at Twickenham last September. As for the result it has to be a Quins win, with their home advantage and the hunger to win after throwing the match in September. With Harlequins not beating London Irish since September 2003, the time is right and they are due for another home win.

I’ll also go for the double a Quins win and Cambridge for the boat race.

The other matches this weekend are;

 

Come on you Quins

 

* Western Mail April 3^rd