The View from the Couch

While some of us were slumming it at Twickenham a gallant few were hard at it on the couch in front of the BT Sport coverage of the London Double Header. Here's the view of the game from one of them...

The initial excitement for the start of a new season waned after the first twenty minutes. While we were competitive at the breakdown and the set pieces, we were at times lacking either organisation or intelligence in defence.

Topsy Ojo was quite fairly singled out by the BT pundits at halftime for poor decision making for both Quins tries, which topped a below expectation first half.

We came out fired up for the second half and made our first foray into the oppo 22 in the 53rd minute. Our ball management was stronger with several sets of 10+ phases. But our back line failed to spark into life and lacked creativity without an X factor player in the ranks.

Shane's kicking from the tee kept us in it, as we lost Homer to a knee injury in the 6th minute. At the end of it, against fourteen men for twenty minutes and camping in their 22 for good periods, the return was not enough.

Positives - Steele, Cowan, Shane, Court, all set pieces

Not so positives - Topsy in defence, attack plan, Homer's injury, handling errors and inopportune times

In the words of Nick Easter we were, "Hanging in by our fingernails at the end." Which shows we performed in the second half.

In short, the forwards gave us the platform, the backs didn't deliver the goods, but they will, they will.

We will win more matches this season, but will need a star back to break into the top half. Could Crossnan tempt BOD out of retirement for one season?