Quins “Headingley” Right Direction...
By Kev T
November 13 2003
... to Tyke the Road to Twickenham. For the second time in two weeks, NEC Harlequins make the trip up the M1 to play Leeds Tykes at Headingley on a Friday night (14th November, kick off 8.00pm).
This time Quins are playing Leeds in the sixth round of the Powergen Cup. Quins go into this match on the back of two wins, one which was a 30 – 16 victory away at Leeds and the other, a magnificent 43 – 21 win against Northampton. In last year’s sixth round, Quins defeated the Tykes by 17 – 13 in a tight game at The Stoop.
For the first time this season I can say that Quins make no changes to the team from last week’s match. George Harder and Ace Tiatia are still at least a week away from being fit. Will Greenwood and Jason Leonard are in the England squad to face France on Sunday morning.
I asked Quins flanker and last week’s Man of the Match Pat Sanderson whether he was keeping abreast of England’s progress during the World Cup. “You can’t ignore it. Some of us have a few mates playing in it and the lads talk about it. Both games could go either way on Saturday and Sunday morning.”
Quins supporters really enjoyed the game against Northampton last week, I said to Pat that it must have been enjoyable to play in as well. “It was enjoyable. We’re not going to get carried away with our performance, it was just one match. What we need to do is try to replicate that one performance week in, week out. Leeds are a very good side and they will make it hard for us to do that on Friday night.”
I asked Pat whether it felt good to perform so well against The Saints’ back row unit whom many regard as the best in the League. “Part of the way you judge yourself is against your peers. To be honest the match has gone now and it is what happens when we play them up at Franklin’s Gardens that counts. The three of us seem to compliment each other which gives the back row a natural balance, so we don’t really work at doing things as a unit in training. The way all three of us play the game is different and complimentary. We’re good pals and we spend a lot of time together outside of the game. When you like each other it’s makes the playing side easier. I’ve been lucky that I’ve always got on with my back row partners here, but we get on especially well. It means we really work for each other and as a unit the back row becomes bigger than the sum of its parts.”
I said to Pat that the backs really seemed to click last week. “It all stems from a good ethos. You hit the rucks harder, the set piece is good, you turn over the other team’s ball, you don’t make mistakes and you produce the opportunities. These are the things that underpin the way we play.”
Turning to Leeds, Pat said, “Leeds are a particularly physical side which you see at first hand when you’re in the thick of it in the back row. This will make for a testing encounter, especially away from home. Aaron Persico will probably be back at Flanker but James Ponton is equally as good. Friday night rugby is exciting and enjoyable to play in but I can see that from the supporters’ point of view it’s a nightmare, as you want to avoid a dash up the M1 on a Friday night.”
Leeds have made a substantial number of changes to the team that were beaten by Quins two weeks ago. Australian hooker Matt Holt moves to tight head prop. At just over 16 stone Holt is pretty light for a tight head and the Quins front row will be looking to exert the same pressure as they did two weeks ago. At second row, 6’ 7” Welsh lock Scott Morgan will try to improve the Leeds line out after they struggled in this area last week against Sale. Morgan partners former Saracen Stuart Hooper. In the back row Italian international Aaron Persico plays after his spell with Italy at The World Cup. Persico was Italy’s star player in last year’s Six Nations tournament. Ex Bristol back rower, Matt Salter moves from blind side flanker to number eight and Dan Hyde moves to the bench.
At scrum half Alan Dickens is not in the squad and former Gloucester player Clive Stuart-Smith starts. Stuart-Smith is regarded as the brightest of the young English scrum halves and left Gloucester due to frustration at being behind Andy Gomarsall in selection each week. Duncan Hodge continues at Fly Half and Phil Christophers moves from the wing to outside centre to partner Liam Botham. Outside centre makes greater use of Christophers mazy running. Leeds also have a surplus of riches on the wing. When a team can afford to have a player like David Rees on the bench then you know they have strength in depth. Argentinian flyer Diego Albanese has also returned from the World Cup and plays left wing with Dan Scarborough moving to right wing from Full Back. Tykes fans feel that Scarborough is more of a threat at wing as he has a few frailties under the high ball. At Full Back, New Zealander and former Llanelli player Matt Cardey starts. Cardey is a safer pair of hands than Scarborough and a more traditional Full Back.
Leeds played particularly poorly two weeks ago but they feel they can take something out of their second half performance against Sale. Leeds were 30 – 7 down at the beginning of the second half but managed to close the gap and lost 37 – 21. Tykes captain Mike Shelley speaking the Yorkshire Evening Post this week sees improvement in the side. “We’re getting better. We did hit rock-bottom when we lost to Quins. That was a poor display. But compared to that, it's getting better. What let us down this weekend was simple defensive errors, one-on-one tackles. We're leaking tries at the moment. We're giving sides big head-starts and we can't afford to do that. We've also been getting into good attacking positions only to lose our own ball – the line-out was poor at Sharks – but we were better and everyone's really positive in the squad. Sale didn't put us under any sustained pressure as such, tries just came about because we were allowing them to run in from 40 metres. We have to cut that out.”
Talking about the match two weeks ago, Shelley said, “"Both teams played poorly that night.
It was a bad match, but we've got a great chance to get some revenge this Friday. Cup games are always different to the Premiership. It's a different style of rugby. We won't approach it any differently but it gives us an opportunity to right a few wrongs.”
This is a much stronger selection by Davies in the backs and in the back row. It is in the tight five that Leeds may suffer. The selection of the light weight Holt at Tight Head will please Mike Worsley who will feel he can get some mileage there. Quins will hope to secure some line out ball from Scott Morgan. The Leeds back line specifically at Full Back and wing make them a real threat. Quins will have to be very accurate in their kicking to these three and they will want to limit Leeds opportunities for broken field running. Leeds back row is very strong and will provide a stiff test for Vos, Sanderson and Diprose. In particular, Persico will provide real pace to compliment the excellent Ponton.
Some of the Leeds fans have questioned the effort of the players in the last two matches. Quins supporters should beware as there is likely to be a backlash. Unless the Quins team is at its best they are unlikely to come away with a win. Leeds will have been working on their set piece and will be highly motivated for this Cup Match. If Quins’ manage to avoid any complacency after last week then I think their advantage in the set piece will give them the edge. Quins have pace to match the Tykes and greater strenght through the middle at centre. They will need to be accurate and avoid mistakes and turnovers against the League’s top try scorers. If they do that then they can win, but beware the Tykes’ backlash.
Leeds Tykes; 15. Matt Cardey; 14. Dan Scarbrough; 13. Phil Christophers; 12. Liam Botham
11. Diego Albanese; 10. Duncan Hodge; 9. Clive Stuart-Smith; 1. Mike Shelley (c); 2. Rob Rawlinson
3. Matt Holt 4. Stuart Hooper; 5. Scott Morgan ; 6. Aaron Persico; 7. James Ponton; 8. Matt Salter
Replacements: 16. Michael Cusack; 17. Gary Powell; 18. Phil Murphy; 19. Dan Hyde; 20. Graeme Barry; 21. Gordon Ross; 22. David Rees
NEC Harlequins: 15 Josh Taumalolo; 14 Simon Keogh; 13 Chris Bell; 12 Mel Deane; 11 Ugo Monye
10 Paul Burke; 9 Ben Willis; 1 Mike Worsley; 2 Tani Fuga; 3 Jon Dawson; 4 Bill Davison; 5 Jim Evans; 6 Pat Sanderson; 7 Andre Vos; 8 Tony Diprose
Replacements: 16 James Hayter; 17 Ceri Jones; 18 Laurent Gomez; 19 Karl Rudzki; 20 Roy Winters
21 Andy Dunne; 22 Gavin Duffy