NEC Harlequins v Nottingham (h) Preview

By Worried of Whitton
January 27 2006

NEC Harlequins are back at The Stoop this weekend their opposition being Nottingham, kick off on Saturday January 28th at 15.00. This will be the first of two meetings in five weeks as Quins have been drawn against Nottingham at “The Avenue” in the Powergen Trophy semi final on March 5th.

Harlequins continue to head ND1 unbeaten, which is a very pleasing sight. Quins are expected to remain unbeaten on Saturday, however as was ably demonstrated by Rotherham, slip ups are certainly possible in the road to the title. Titans 41-7 demolition of Pirates last week, has probably scuppered their remaining title hopes for this season. Commenting on his team’s win Rotherham coach Andre Bester said “It was a workmanlike performance. If you want to win this league and that’s what Harlequins have proved this season, you have to do a workmanlike job on this league. They go out there, they grind out their wins whenever they have to and then they start ticking off the tries to get the bonus points. That’s what we did today”. Bedford, in second place, still pose a serious challenge, there is still no room for complacency anything can happen. With ten league games to go Harlequins have yet to play the six clubs immediately below them, two of which are away, down in the West Country.

 

 

In highlighting Nottingham’s record this season Scotty stated “they have a league record of played 15, won seven and lost eight,  but perhaps more important is their record of tries conceded just 32 in the league to date”, with only Harlequins having conceded less, at 24 so far this season. Digging down deeper into these statistics of those 24 tries conceded, 7 have been at home, and if you discount the 4 try Christmas present we gave London Welsh, that becomes a very strong home defensive record at home. Nottingham have only scored an average of  just over one try per away game and lost all of their away matched this season, with the exception of Sedgley Park, who ran them close a few weeks again their return match. Both Nottingham and Titans have a game in hand over everyone else. This is due to their postponed match from New Years Day, which has been rescheduled for next Saturday.

When the clubs meet earlier in the season Quins won the match 32-10 thanks in part to six first half penalties from Mehrtens, but discovered a very well organized and competitive Nottingham side, and they can expect a similar approach from the determined side this weekend. Harlequins will need to implement “Plan A and ensure that they play the full 80 minutes. In recent games Quins have had a tendency to play a full on first half to win the game and “relax” a little in the second half. Nottingham, however, appear to be play the opposite way. Last weekend while Quins were piling on the tries down in Newbury, Nottingham were at home to Plymouth, and found themselves 10-0 down at half time. A fired up Nottingham came out for the second half and put on 21 unanswered points, before Plymouth got back with a late try. Quins will be only too aware that Nottingham played a similar game against them, increasing their intensity in the second half rather than being thwarted by superior fitness levels.

Following their win against Plymouth last weekend, comments on the Nottingham website regarding their performance suggest Quins will have a match on their hands this week.  “The lads were awesome today, Multi phase rugby at its best. On that performance we will give Quins a run for their money next week.”  “What a tremendous display … probably the best I‘ve ever seen at Nottingham. The 15 minute spell in the second half, culminating in the Stenhouse drop goal was the most controlled and aggressive attacking rugby I’ve ever seen, I dare say it would have worried Quins a great deal.” Another posting read “… we weren’t out of it in the first half but a great second half display and a well deserved four points against a good side. The whole team played well, the forwards at times were awesome in attack and defence and if they play like that next week Quins could be in for a surprise.”   The Nottingham backs also played well with Stenhouse putting in a very useful performance with his kicking, passing and tackling, despite being injured in a particularly crunching tackle in the second half. Hooker Duffey was Nottingham’s man of the match put in a series of bruising tackles and just go kept going in the maul, and some stout second half defending.

With Nottingham captain Craig Hammond is out for the rest of the season with a knee ligament injury. Director of Rugby Glenn Delaney has brought Mark Easter back in on loan from Northampton Saints. Easter goes straight into the back row at blindside and Kevin Brennan takes over the captaincy.

Nottingham are probably a better side now than when they played Quins back in September, and it was their discipline that them down that let us down that day, allowing Mehrtens to slot over six penalties. Currently we are looking a more disciplined side, they are capable of causing an upset, and I'm sure they will be up for having another go at the 'Premiership' side on Saturday, especially as Quins will be without Mehrtens.

Despite having the best defensive record in the League, Quins did leak four tries again last week against Newbury who became the second team to do so after London Welsh. There has been an interesting debate on the CAW board this week regarding Quins overall ND 1 performance as being “Ruthless” or “Toothless”, comparing Quins to past winners of the ND 1 title. Kev T‘s response is probably spot on when posted; “We are trying to pay a faster paced game and experimenting. This is very different from the way we played last season and has taken time to get used to. We could have ground the ball up through our forwards in the last quarter of games and put a stack of points up but haven't. Secondly, we have blooded a number of youngsters and experimented with different permutations. Thirdly, I agree the standard of ND1 rugby is higher than perhaps we all expected.”

Whilst the management, and supporters alike do not like conceding tries, a win in a win, and using a. “Mc Cawberesque” analogy, so long as points scored is greater than points conceded then we should be happy. However as Scotty spoke “ the coaches and players were far from happy with our performance, especially in conceding four tries for the second time this season. We missed far too many tackles and at times it felt like we were watching a game of sevens.”  The game started so well for Harlequins with Fuga on the score sheet within two minutes, quickly followed by an interception which saw Mehrtens sprinting down the pitch as if he was in the 3.15 at Newbury racecourse. This was followed in quick succession by a second for Fuga and one for Easter bringing up the bonus. Towards half tie So’oailo got on the score sheet quickly followed by Keogh who, not to be out done by Mehrtens, looked as if he was running in the 3.45 at Newbury. In the second half Quins quickly racked up their half century of points and with the game won began to ease of the throttle, enabling Newbury a successful fight back to claw a final score of 25-57 at the end of the match.  Coop’s match report suggests that this was a “balanced team effort… and their professionalism and better application in the ways their tries were taken ensured the healthy margin.”

Harlequins have made five changes to the team that started away at Newbury; Ugo Monye starts his first game since the match against Bedford on 3rd December, having recovered from a hamstring injury, and replaces Charlie Amesbury on the right wing. Illness means Will Greenwood may start on the bench, with his place in the midfield going to Mel Deane, who starts for the first time since the match against Cornish Pirates in which he was concussed.

Steve So’oialo has a wrist injury, so Ian Vass starts at scrum half and will partner Adrian Jarvis, who starts at fly half in place of Andrew Mehrtens. There is one change in the pack, with Tom Guest replacing Chris Robshaw on the blindside flank. The club has announced seven players for the bench and this will be confirmed on Saturday morning, and is dependant upon the fitness of Greenwood. It is good to see Tom Williams has made it back ok from France. What is certain is that Academy lock forward George Robson set to feature in the First XV squad for the first time. Congratulations George.

With Mehrtens away and Greenwood out due to illness if Vos is substituted we will need to ensure that there is someone who will marshall (J) the troops effectively.

Saturday is going to be a tight match and who takes control in the second half will be crucial but with Nottingham’s poor away record, home advantage will prevail.

 

Come on You Quins!

 

NEC Harlequins   
15. Mike Brown,14. Ugo Monye,13. Gavin Duffy,12. Mel Deane,11. Simon Keogh,10. Adrian Jarvis , 9. Ian Vass, 1. Ceri Jones,2. Tani Fuga, 3. Ricky Nebbett,  4. Jim Evans.5. Simon Miall, 6. Tom Guest 7. Andre Vos (c), 8. Nick Easter
Replacements: to be confirmed: 16. Jimmy Richards,17. Lorne Ward,18. Alex Rogers,19. George Robson,20. Chris Robshaw, 21. Will Greenwood, 22. Tom Williams, 23. Tosh Masson,

Nottingham to be confirmed:
15.Ben Thompson; 14.David Jackson, 13.Chris Wyles, 12.Tim Molenaar, 11.Tom Kirk, 10.Neil Stenhouse, 9.Kevin Brennan (capt); 1.Peter Cook, 2.Joe Duffey, 3.Nigel Hall, 4.Lee Morley, 5.Dan Moore, 6.Mark Easter, 7. David Wilks, 8.Adam Corcoran.
Replacements: 16. Alex Loney, 17. Tonga Lea’aetoa, 18.Nic Fitisemanu, 19.Paul Arnold, 20.Neil Fowkes, 21.Ali Warnock, 22. Josh Kay.

Match Officials:
Referee: Rowan Kitt
Touch judges: Richard Phillips, James Minards