Relegation Roadmap: Round 2

By Quaking Quin
January 5 2007

Dean Richards is reported to have said after the Glawster game that he did not think Quins would go down. We all remember ME coming up with an identical comment at a Quinssa meet-the-management event during the relegation year.

It is clear from the first two performances that Quins will not blaze any trail in the GP this year. However, if the sole objective is to finish one above the relegation position then Deano still has some time before the team really need to start collecting serious points.

On the basis that 40 is the accepted number needed in the GP to avoid relegation Quins need to win 8 games (32 points) and pick up 8 further bonus points in any combination they can.

A realistic assumption would be that we can beat 12th place home and away (Wuzz rather than Briz on results so far). Therefore, Quins must win 7 of their 11 home games and also manage 4 bp’s at home (say - 2 games with 4 tries & 2 close defeats). This leaves 4 other points from 4 close away defeats.

Assuming September is a wash-out, bar the point already gained from Oirish, then the remaining 39 points come from Deano’s key target games on:

15/10/06 Briz (a) close defeat (1bp)
04/11/06 Saints (h) win only (4)
10/11/06 Falcons (a) close defeat (1bp)
17/11/06 Wuzz (h) win + try bp (5)
22/12/06 Sarries (h) win only (4)
27/12/06 Wuzz (a) away win (4)
01/01/07 Falcons (h) win + try bp (5)
06/01/07 Barf (h) win only (4)
24/02/07 Briz (h) win only (4)
10/03/07 Wasps (h) close defeat (1bp)
07/04/07 Oirish (h) win only (4)
15/04/07 Sarries (a) close defeat (1bp)
28/04/07 Sale (h) close defeat (1bp)

Neither the Autumn Internationals nor the 6N’s are as helpful as in 0405 - with the notable exception of Wasps at home the same weekend as England/France on March 11.

It does demonstrate that Deano can use the October Euro and Anglo cups to re-group and find his best combinations.

The crunch dates are the two home games in November.

Failure here means Deano will quickly have to bring in two or three significant southern hemisphere signings to regain lost ground.



So it is true – for the next six weeks we can all enjoy the performances rather than the results.

Let the 'benchmarking' begin.............