Quins out to Fox Saints (Northampton preview)

By Worried of Whitton
March 24 2005

The run in to the end of the season starts in earnest this weekend as Harlequins meet Northampton at Franklins Gardens, kick off at 3pm. With just 5 weeks to go until the end of what has been a poor season for both clubs, there is still ZP survival to fight for, so both teams will be very determined

At the start of the season, with some shrewd summer signings and the arrival of Alan Solomons, Northampton romped away with two solid wins against Bath, and the following week thumped Quins 45-13 at the Stoop to go top of the Premiership, and anchoring Quins firmly at bottom. I was convinced that this was going to be Northampton s year. Into the autumn, the Northampton campaign began to splutter and ended up in free fall. I ve not researched, but it is likely that this season Northampton can lay claim to occupying every single premiership position at least once. By Christmas Northampton were in trouble,  joining Quins in the Premiership basement after a run of eleven losses, and with his battered halo  Saint Alan   was shown the door.  Since his departure and the appointment of Budge Poutney, Northampton have had a renaissance in their fortunes and rediscovered the will to win, and as a measure of their determination still find themselves in the Quarter Finals of the Heineken Cup, with a daunting tie against Toulouse next weekend. Such was the depth of their Premiership crisis, that despite a string of recent wins, Northampton still find themselves in eleventh place on 31 points, but now with a five point cushion above bottom placed Leeds on 26 points.

In contrast  Harlequins have sat at the bottom for most of the season, but now with renewed confidence are, relatively  speaking, sitting comfortably in eighth place after some excellent recent wins over Gloucester, Bath and Newcastle. Unlike Northampton, Evans squared up to his responsibility as Head Coach, and Quins have played themselves out of trouble. Indeed he suggested a change in his roles as Chief Executive and Head Coach at the Quinssa Evening back in February, and rumours have abounded since then regarding a new appointment or even appointments in the coaching staff.  In true Quins style announcements are usually made at the end of the season, i.e. 'more later'!  The Evans safety target of 37 points is tantalisingly two points away, with four games to go, so one has to assume this is easily achievable. As a measure of the optimism the club are currently enjoying Mark Evans announced in the Newcastle Programme  a new target of qualifying for the Zurich Wild Card play offs. This would be possible if Bath were to beat Leeds in the Powergen Cup final, allowing the team who finish eight to qualify for the play offs. The win against Newcastle has made this more achievable.  With four more matches to play, Harlequins find themselves, playing three of the four teams currently below them in the Premiership, Northampton and Leeds away and London Irish at home. One would expect to pick up the necessary points from these matches, and these teams together with tenth placed Worcester, all have difficult matches still to play, and Quins too meet Sale on the last day of the season. It has been a funny season and nothing is predictable, and it all depends on which team turns up on the day. Let us not forget that there is still the mathematical chance that Quins could finish bottom.

The bottom of the Premiership remains tight with just four points separating Harlequins in eighth followed by London Irish, Worcester and Northampton in eleventh position, There is now a five point gap between them and bottom placed Leeds who cannot be looking forward to entertaining Leicester on Easter Sunday. Whilst London Irish and Worcester face Gloucester and Saracens respectively two teams who are fighting for automatic entry into the Heineken competition. The results of all these matches will be keenly awaited.

Both clubs recorded fine wins in the last round of the competition. Northampton played with commitment and determination to overcome a below par Gloucester 26-18 at Kingsholm. At one stage during the match Saints were cruising to victory at 23-6,  before Gloucester replied with two tries. The Northampton defence were put under severe pressure but Krige and company refused to concede, even when the Gloucester pack threatened to wrestle the game away from them. This win followed an equally impressive victory against Leicester, suggesting that Northampton will avoid the drop. Saints announced this week that their flanker Darren Fox has returned to full training this week after recovering from cracked ribs sustained in the match against Leicester. Matt Lord is also back on the selection list. There is good news for BatQuin too, as Ben Cohen is also back in training, just three weeks after he sustained a smashed cheekbone in the Tsunami Match at Twickenham. It is hoped that he too will be fully fit,  along with prop Tom Smith, who injured his back last Saturday at Twickenham, for this weeks match. 

Although remembered as a third comeback match for 'Wor Jonny' and subsequent  re-injury, Harlequins put in a confident performance against Newcastle two weeks ago,  winning 39-23 ,scoring four tries through Harder, Evans, Fuga and Williams thus collecting another bonus point and elevating them to their highest league position this year.  This was an accomplished display by Harlequins and a real team effort, ranking alongside the earlier home performances against Saracens and Gloucester.

This preview is being written early due to the Easter holiday and at this time team news is scarce. There has not been any news regarding the calf injury picked up by Monye in the Hong Kong Sevens last weekend. If he is doubtful Keogh will start, in a line up that I suspect will be otherwise unchanged from the one that started against Newcastle. It has been reported today that Will Greenwood is well on the mend from his shoulder operation last December and is expected to be available for Quins Selection for the match against London Irish, coincidentally just two days before Woodward announces his Lions Squad!  Greenwood has taken a steady approach to his rehabilitation and has spent some time with the England squad, as well as being back in full training with Harlequins. Paul Turner is quoted as saying that 'Will is looking very sharp in training. It's good to have some rugby brains out there on the pitch.'

So what of the prospects for this match? Despite their poor season both sides have had some excellent results of late and both appear to be improving. History shows that Northampton have had by far the better record against Harlequins, winning eleven of their fifteen ZP meetings, with Quins winning on just three occasions. Northampton were on fire when they visited the Stoop last September. I've only seen them play on other occasion this year in the televised Powergen Cup against Leeds, when their performance was woeful but there has been some improvement since then. 

There is also the fact that Harlequins have not won at Franklins Gardens since August 1997, but then we'd not won away at Bath for many years. As a final omen 'Mighty Quin' by Manfred Mann  and more ironically 'Don't Fear the Reaper' by The Blue Oyster Cult  were played on the radio as I wrote  this article. Last season Quins narrowly lost 18-17 at Northampton, and two years ago drew 13-13. An away win is certainly achievable and on Quins current form an away win is expected. Realistically a loss for Quins would not be disastrous but would certainly dent the newly found confidence, and be a set back to achieving Evans new target.

May be the fairest result would be a high scoring draw with both sides scoring four tries (or more) and gaining three points each, but that would certainly bring out the conspiracy theorists in their droves!

One thing is for sure it should prove to be an exciting match, and with Tony Spreadbury returning from Six Nations action, as the man in the middle, it will be well refereed.

Happy Easter. 

Come on you Quins!

You can win this one.

  

 

NEC Harlequins: 15. Tom Williams; 14. George Harder; 13. Dafydd James; 12. Mel Deane; 11. Simon Keogh ; 10. Jeremy Staunton; 9. Steve So’oialo; 1. Mike Worsley; 2. Tani Fuga; 3. Ceri Jones; 4. Jim Evans; 5. Simon Miall; 6. Nick Easter; 7. Andre Vos (Capt.); 8. Tony Diprose
Replacements: 16. Ace Tiatia ; 17. Jon Dawson; 18. Simon Maling; 19. Luke Sherriff; 20. Dave von Hoesslin; 21. Arwel Thomas; 22. Gavin Duffy

Northampton Saints: 15 Bruce Reihana; 14 John Rudd; 13 Andy Vilk; 12 Marc Stcherbina; 11 Paul Diggin; 10 Shane Drahm; 9 Johnny Howard; 1 Simon Emms; 2 Dan Richmond; 3 Robbie Morris; 4 Matt Lord; 5 Damien Browne; 6 Andrew Blowers; 7 Corne Krige (capt); 8 Mark Soden
Replacements: 16 Steve Thompson; 17 Tom Smith; 18 Alex Codling; 19 Darren Fox; 20 Ben Jones; 21 Paul Grayson; 22 Mark Tucker  

Match officials:

Referee:           Tony Spreadbury
Touch judges:  Andy Watson and Stuart Terheege
Assessor:         Ed Morrision