Harlequins v Tigers AP Match Preview
By ChrisC
January 5 2015
Scrapyard Sorrows. There they were; as sad and sorry a bunch as could be imagined. Once they’d been the object of much anticipation and, after the designated gestation period, they’d been delivered to their new owners but now they cut forlorn figures.
There’s nothing quite like a new car. Not a “new to me” but brand, spanking, fresh from the factory, new.
Never sullied by some rough hands. Never abused, scratched, chipped or despoiled. A virginally crisp new car.
That smell; the mixture of new leather and fabric together with fresh paintwork and lubricants. All mingling into an exotic fragrance.
Windows that will never be quite as clean again, tyres without a stone or wear to besmirch them, an odometer that has registered barely a mile as the car was driven to and from its giant delivery vehicle.
The barely contained anticipation of that first drive. The pride of ownership.
Sublime, but ultimately transient, happiness in a tin box.
Passed on by those proud owners, with barely a backward glance, as another new car comes into view and the whole process starts again.
The first few “new to me” owners will be just as proud of their acquisition but progressively, as it’s passed from hand to hand, it will treated with disdain and irritation as the ravages of time and increasing neglect take their toll.
Now there they were; unceremoniously heaped nose to tail, upside down, mortally damaged and on their way to the breakers’ yard for stripping of such useful components as remain in their abused shells.
A metallic metaphor for the human condition.
This reflective opening arises from an article that I read about James Simpson-Daniel, surely one of the greatest examples of a talent marred and eventually curtailed by injury.
I saw him many times at Kingsholm. He was a very special player and yet now he’s crippled and consigned to the list of those who, other than amongst the aficionados, will be largely forgotten in a few years time.
Hendrie Fourie, Andy Sheridan, Rob Wood, Kieran Roche, James Hanks, Steve Thompson, Thom Evans, Craig Clarke, Andy Titterell, Stephen Ferris, Lewis Moody, Gareth Thomas, Trevor Woodman, Phil Vickery, Craig Newby, Ben Herring, Ollie Morgan, Richard Blaze and of course Aaron Mauger Tigers’ Head Coach elect all stricken by career ending, life changing injuries.
The list of the afflicted goes on snaking into the past, a seemingly endless queue reaching back into rugby’s shadow lands.
Some have forged new careers in punditry or coaching with varying degrees of success but they’re in the minority while Matt Hampson remains an exemplar of fortitude and focus having had much support from Tigers.
Our sport is almost unrecognisable from that I played all those years ago. Players across the pitch now jet propelled behemoths.
Sanctimonious platitudes are uttered by the sport’s administrators, luxuriating in their sinecures, that player welfare is paramount, newspapers mount campaigns to bring attention to the damage of concussive collisions. Yet the reality of this professed concern manifests itself in ever more fixtures, the injury toll mounts, more careers end prematurely, more lives full of promise are ruined and still that shadowy queue continues to grow.
In a few weeks the Six Nations competition will be upon us and in short order the summer tours and then the World Cup will grind into life.
I have long since lost much appetite for international rugby with the preposterous Autumn Internationals and summer tours joining the LV= Cup and of course the nonsensical Premiership play offs at the forefront of attracting my opprobrium.
There’s something distasteful about such trumped up competitions, something crass and grasping, the overt mercantilism of our sport frankly leaves me queasy as the players once again leave their trenches urged ever onward by the sport’s General Haigs seated far to the rear.
At least the Six Nations has its roots but the rest?
But for now this is the final act of worthwhile league competition until the end of March when the players wrested from their Premiership clubs return from international duties.
I can imagine the Directors of Rugby watching from behind their sofas through entwined fingers as their players perform on the international stage as if a series of Dr Who episodes were taking place and hoping against hope that their charges return from the embrace of the international coaches in one piece both physically and psychologically.
Now I have to admit I haven’t watched much of Quins’ match with London Welsh. It was one of those occasions when I pretty much knew what’d happen and with London Welsh being solid candidates for relegation since early on I didn’t think I’d learn much about Tigers’ opposition this weekend, although Conor O’Shea’s men got an early fright and had to work hard to deny the Oxford based team their first victory.
However I did watch Quins’ game against Northampton – the mega-gigantic–super-match- thingaummy-me-bob.
It left me shaking my head at the result. How on earth did Quins lose? They played pretty much all the attacking rugby. Indeed the stats show them superior in every such aspect. And don’t let me hear anymore about the wonderful open, free spirited Saints who defended as if their lives depended on it but offered little else in attack apart from Samoa Manoa and Myler’s boot.
I also watched Tigers most recent encounter with Bath as they sought to banish what must have been the recurring nightmare of 20th September 2014 and they did so with a perfervid performance which was positively atavistic to watch.
Tigers will travel to south west London next Saturday with more of a spring in their step having put Bath away and in the knowledge that this is another deep notch on their war spears for this season to go alongside the home victory against Toulon.
I had the misfortune to also see Mike Ford’s post match interview on Sunday and was struck by the similarity between him and Bernard Laporte. No not the size of the bank balances of their respective owners but their ungracious attitudes in defeat as their bands ofGalácticoscouldn’t prevail over poor old homespun, straw chewing Tigers at Welford Road.
It sounds as if Tigers will have Mulipola available to support the ever magnificent Marcos Ayerza who celebrated his 200th appearance in a Tigers’ shirt last Sunday with a dominant display against England’s Wilson. It’s to be hoped that Dan Cole is also once again fit, although Fraser Balmain must be one of the most improved of players since the opening day of this troubled season and with Mulipola able to play both sides of the front row Tigers look to at last have top notch support on hand.
Quins have had their own travails to cope with in their front row with Marler missing since their loss to Leinster in Dublin. If the England loose-head isn’t fit for next weekend then I can see stand in Will Collier having a torrid time whether it’s Balmain, who gave Welsh international loose-head James a thorough work out and refused to be riled by the Bath forwards targeting him with their niggling antics, or Mulipola he faces.
Dave Ward ex of Bath, Pirates, Northampton and Sale went off in the sixty-eighth minute against Saints with his arm in a sling. The Bath born hooker is a bundle of energy originally coming to the Stoop as an injury replacement when both Buchanan and Gray were crocked. Ironically it’s that self same Gray that looks likely to start should Ward be sidelined and while his line out work is probably better Gray, the elegant ex Saint, doesn’t have the open play presence of Ward. For Tigers; if this season’s policy is to be followed, Italian international Ghiraldini will get the start for the visitors.
I can see advantage Tigers especially if Marler is still absent.
George Robson also looked in some discomfort when he went off at Twickenham and didn’t make the trip to Oxford last Sunday. With Robson as solid as the limestone outcrop on which his native Dudley Castle stands he’s similarly fundamental to the Quins’ line out foundations.
In local lad and Quins’ Academy product; Charlie Matthews, still just twenty-three, Quins have a good foil for Robson’s muscularity and they have formed a durable partnership even if the Quins’ lineout is not as formidable these days as when Olly Kohn was around. Wallaby James Horwill is on his way to bolster Quins’ resources next year and I hope his presence isn’t at the expense of Matthews who looks a star of the future.
The future of Parling at Welford Road seems in some doubt but for the present he’s coming back to form (good for his show reel as well as Tigers!) and Kitchener has become one of the league’s top performers. If he’s fit I’d still like to see the scrum time grunt of Brad Thorn deployed early on before the athletic Kitchener is utilised and with Gibson or Croft boosting Tigers I can see an edge for the visitors at the set pieces. Both teams can use the rolling maul to good effect, defence of which has become almost impossible without a resultant penalty as scrum halves ignore the referees’ admonition to “use it” until a penalty has been milked.
Chris Robshaw is reputed to be available for Tigers’ visit and his talismanic presence will certainly be a big boost for the hosts however his return will presumably displace another young academy product; Jack Clifford from the open side slot where he was superb against Saints in the latest of a run of starts in the absence of Robshaw and Wallace. The twenty-one year old is another marvellous prospect and gave Saints’ Wood all sorts of problems when the young Quin linked up with the equally impressive Joe Trayfoot making just his fourth Premiership start.
I particularly liked the way the two youngsters worked together with “old man” Easter taking time from his usual troublemaking to administer a guiding hand to his back row wunderkinds.
Whether, even with Robshaw restored, the Quins trio will be able to best the eternally excellent Salvi and Gibson is another matter entirely as with Crane or Barbieri also both in fine fettle they beat the Bath stars hands down (no pun intended!).
At the big match thing, on Sunday at Welford Road and elsewhere I’ve been struck by how badly the breakdown is now policed. At Twickenham I found myself squinting to see if, under cover of being a prawn sandwich seller, a sniper had secreted himself atop the West Stand as the players collapsed into the breakdown.
And what’s with this now permissible taking out of defenders on the fringes of, but not forming part of, the ruck which saw Benjamin denied the chance to stop Sale’s opening try the previous week?
Tigers will need to be aware of this tactic as Quins use it to great effect but with more subtlety. They then attack the space between the ruck and the opposition fly half. Saints spotted this well executed strategy which releases Quins to play their high paced off loading game and deployed additional defensive resources to good effect in the second half at Twickenham.
The main focus for match officials seems to be on tackled players not releasing the ball in a nanosecond or the tackler not releasing them in like timescale. The latest cheating, seemingly encouraged by match officials as they enthusiastically sanction the tackler, is for an attacking player to kneel or otherwise prevent the tackler from moving and rolling away. Are match officials really that witless?
In a fair, well managed, contest it’s hard to see Salvi and his colleagues being bested but as the breakdown is these days akin to a Sex Pistols concert I’ve no idea how it’ll turn out!
I hadn’t seen Danny Care play for a while but against Saints, and the normal provocation they bring to the opposing scrum half, I was impressed that for the most part Care didn’t react and that it was the petulant Lee Dickson who put in a bravura display of that vice while Care remained calmer as he outplayed his rival.
In the past I have been critical of Care’s seeming attempts of self aggrandisement at the expense of the collegiate but on this occasion I sensed a new esprit de corps about him. The sparkiness was still there but more controlled and appropriate somehow.
Ben Youngs is another who has matured and it will be an interesting matchup between the two scrum halves with their differing styles although Youngs is likely to have the better platform from which to work.
Tigers own cool guy, he from the valleys, the newly re-signed Owen Williams, came back with a flourish against Bath and was marvellously controlling while George Ford skittered around trying to keep away from the Tigers’ breakaways and not doing much at all, well aside from missing vital kicks. I don’t see rotation with Burns being worthwhile at the Stoop where control will be paramount so the Welshman should continue.
Nick Evans is apparently sidelined for a while yet and although stand in Ben Botica is recovered from injury I expect to see dispensation signing Tim Swiel continue. I was impressed by young Swiel who’s come in during the southern hemisphere’s closed season.
The youngster from Taunton, who usually plays his rugby in South Africa for Sharks and latterly for Natal in the Currie Cup, has great distribution skills, runs some lovely lines and is inclined to keep the ball in hand rather than kick. A great find by O’Shea.
How good to see George Lowe back from a long absence through injury. He’s my kind of centre; intelligent, hard working and always looking for opportunities.
I thought Lowe’s partnership with Jordan Turner-Hall was one of the best in the Premiership and I wonder when it’ll be rekindled.
Don’t get me wrong ex Cornish Pirate Welshman Matt Hopper is a good, fast and elusive runner who’s been getting plenty of game time having already started on fifteen occasions, just one fewer than for the whole of last season but I’m not sure he’s the best fit with Lowe. I was a therefore surprised room wasn’t found for the excellent Tim Molenaar in O’Shea’s plans for this season as I thought he’d made a good impression after his arrival at the Stoop. But then I was just as surprised that Gloucester let him go in the first place.
With Tuilagi missing for a few weeks yet the outside centre conundrum at Tigers continues and I was surprised that when Scully scratched last Sunday Goneva wasn’t moved to the wing with either Bai or Loamanu joining the eternally subtle and hardworking Allen, as with all three able to play in either centre field positions they could have alternated with him according to circumstances.
If one watches rugby on a purely superficial level then the craft and art of the Lowes and Allens passes you by. However even the dullest of observers couldn’t fail to notice how the porous Tigers’ defence of the previous week tightened sphincter like with Allen’s return.
Out wide for Quins Marlon Yarde, one of just two signings for the current season made by O’Shea, looked to be at last approaching his best form and looking for work. The evergreen Ugo Monye made his own return from injury to appear against Saints only to be replaced by Quins only other new signing: Fijian international Asaeli Tikoirotuma, who’s arrived from Chiefs for whom he scored thirteen tries in his three seasons of Super Rugby, for the trip to Oxford.
My guess is that with Tom Williams, also back from injury and, with Yarde, getting on the score sheet against London Welsh, will line up with the ex London Irish winger while Mike Brown returns at full back.
Brown made some impressive breaks against Saints and looked solidity itself under the high ball, so back to normal after a patchy time?
In Scully’s absence Adam Thompstone was drafted in on Sunday but it was difficult for the backs to make too much impression in the “knock down/drag out “against Bath but I’d still like to see Goneva back on the wing with Bai/Loamanu in the centres with Allen.
Benjamin meanwhile will surely keep his place on the other wing after showing again with his combination of pace and muscularity why Tigers signed him.
Tait made good yardage against Bath, was solid under the high ball and defended well in the revitalised defensive structure. Against Quins, with their more open style, the ex England centre may just find a bit more space while Brown will have also to be at his best to crack Tigers’ defensive code.
Had I written this piece a few weeks ago when Quins looked off the pace I’d have said that Tigers would probably come away from south west London with another win. However I sense that the Twickenham match may have signalled the start of a recovery for O’Shea’s men as did that against Sale and Bath for Tigers after their confidence building victory over Toulon at Welford Road.
A close run thing between two teams just finding their form and home advantage could just tip the scales for Quins if they can contain the Tigers’ pack but that may just be beyond them.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015:01:12:21:24:54 by Tiggs.
Can't disagree with any of it.
Hopefully Allen and Bai in the centres and Niki back to the wing for me. He can cover the outside centre slot from there if needed with Scully to cover the back 3 from the bench.
Fraser to start with Logo to come on at the hour mark. I suspect we won't be seeing Brad this week sadly. But as Crofty warmed up on Sun I expect him back in some form.
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The club have experience of many such instances, always alert to the risk, but have still not always managed to avoid ending upon their collective bottom in timely [or untimely] fashion
Hopefully a Pythonesque cry of, ''Come at me with a banana!'' will spur us on to overcome any 'fruitful' efforts from Quins and the epithet, ''Hardlywins'', will live on
After recent sterling efforts it would be a shame to let points slip when they are so tantalisingly there for the plucking.
Pluck 'em all, Tigers!
More excellent work, Chris. Thanks
The referee is the final arbitrary ------------------ {The persons and events mentioned in this post are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely co-incidental}
I'd go along with Rich's suggestion re selection, and I'd also hope to see Scully reinstated on the wing - Thommo didn't do much wrong, but I do think Blaine offers a bit more dynamism in attack.
We'll really need to stay focussed, but if we do, we could bag another important result on Saturday. Here's hoping.
As for the revival of the Lowe/Turner-Hall partnership, at the moment this is looking increasingly a distant prospect. JTH had major hip surgery last year, and has looked a shadow of his former self since then. He seems to be so anxious about contact that he is dropping the ball more often than not, and doesn't make those hard yards that he did in his heyday.
One small thing to note. Collier is a TH, and in the absence of Marler it will likely be the mighty Mark Lambert lining up against you on the LH side.
Cheers
