Preview: Earth Titans (h)

By Worried of Whitton
March 10 2006

Fresh from their Powergen Trophy semi final win against Nottingham at ”The Beeston Tea Party”  the NEC Harlequins return to The Stoop for their ND 1 championship match against Earth Titans. Kick off is at 15.00 on Saturday March 11th.

Rotherham are having a very good season in ND 1, and it is their best since they were relegated in 2004 and are currently lying in fifth position after twelve wins. Last weekend they produced a devastating first half performance away from home at Newbury in which they cruised to 31 unanswered points including five tries and in true Quins fashion had picked up a bonus point by half time.  They scored a sixth try in the second half as Newbury fought back with three of their own. The final score of Newbury17 – Rotherham 36, gave Titans just their fourth victory on the road this season after earlier wins at Coventry, Pertemps Bees and Otley.

After the match Rotherham coach, Andre Bester was pleased with the performance, he added “I m very proud of the guys today and I take my hat off to them. We did slacken off a bit in the second half and we became too defensive, but the boys did a fantastic job and blew them away.”

Rotherham were 7-0 up after just two minutes. A five metre scrum got Newbury going backwards before Donald peeled off at the base to crash over near the corner which Whitehead converted. On 15 minutes after a sustained period of Roth pressure, good interplay between Whitehead and Strauss saw him break through for a try under the posts. Whitehead once more converted.

Halfway through the first half Rotherham set up another 5 metre scrum and once again Donald peeled off from the base. Although tackled just short of the line, Donald showed good strength to bulldoze over On 27 minutes Rotherham secured their bonus point as Claassens collected just inside his own 10 metre line and raced off. As the Newbury defence pushed up he side-stepped leaving the two man defence floundering as a gaping hole appeared. Claassens then found support from Bornman who cut back inside five metres from the line before going over for a fine unconverted try. Three minutes later Carruthers. had a “try” disallowed following  a forward pass, but just before the break he did get on the score-sheet, although he was tackled just short of the line, his strength and tenacity enabled him to touch down in the corner. Again this try was unconverted and Rotherham went in 31 -0 at halftime.  

A feisty Newbury fought back in the second half and it took Rotherham twenty five minutes to get their hands on the ball in a forward position. In that time Newbury had scored three unanswered tries, but a home win was not really on the cards as Rotherham finished much the stronger and scored their sixth try of the game through Carruthers, who will need to be watched on Saturday. Whitehead hit the post from the touchline with his conversion attempt. Rotherham will be eager to repeat their first half performance this weekend, whist Quins would be happier for the second half performance to be on display

Quins still have to play the four teams below them, three of which will be played at home and Rotherham, as well as Bedford and Plymouth and indeed Sedgley Park are all keen to be the first team to inflict a defeat at The Stoop this season. Quins have shown they can be vulnerable after their display at Exeter two weeks ago, however the comprehensive defeat of Nottingham last weekend has also shown that Quins are back. It was three wins out of three meetings with Nottingham who are a well organised team. To their credit Quins defended very well again, and with Miall reading the line out calls very effectively Quins took the Nottingham line out apart. Despite announcing his retirement Greenwood put in a magnificent performance and assisted greatly in creating two of Quins tries, with a charge down leading to Duffy’s try. Minutes later another sublime try scoring pass from Greenwood to Duffy was wasted as he knocked on. Greenwood’s creativity continued in the second half when another typical Greenwood break and pass put Harder through the defence and with Easter collecting the ball for his second try of the afternoon, and sixteenth of the season. Final score Nottingham 10 - Harlequins 24. Despite a fine win there is still concern over the amount of turnover ball that is conceded, and a number of try scoring opportunities were thrown away. However it is a just and very fitting reward that Greenwood now gets a final game at Twickenham before he retires, Captain for the day perhaps?.

Although it has not confirmed by Harlequins, Rotherham have announced that two of their players have signed for Harlequins in the past month. Winger Dave Strettle and No8 Chris Hala’ufia are Stoop bound at the end of the season. Since the announcement neither player has figured much in the Rotherham starting line up, although Hala’ufia is named on the bench this weekend. Dave Strettle is part of the England Sevens Squad and has been clocking up a number of air miles in recent weeks, and is unlikely to be at the The Stoop this weekend, as the sevens squad prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Rotherham have made just two changes from the side that beat Newbury last week both are in the forwards as Neil Hanna returns for  Conroy and in the second row, Louis McGowan returns in place of Gareth McComb. Speaking ahead of this Saturday’s game, Titans coach Andre Bester said, “… we believe we can win… We are not going there with the intent of keeping the score low; we are going with a positive attitude”. He was very complimentary about Harlequins performance this season adding; “Harlequins is a big challenge and they have done the simple things very well this season. They look very well after their first phase ball, they kick very well in the right areas of the pitch and on occasions they have played some stunning rugby. Their line out is a big asset for them, it is undoubtedly the best in the division and one of the best in the Country – including the Premiership. They have a high percentage of stealing opposition ball and our application needs to be spot on if we are going to compete in that area”.

It is good to se that some of Quins injury worries are improving with the announcement that both Ricky Nebbett and Jim Evans will be fit and available for selection this weekend.  

Despite that  wobble at Exeter, Harlequins are now back on form, and back at fortress Stoop  with the crowd cheering them on they should collect another win this weekend, although Rotherham will be no slouches. Visitors to the Stoop this season have found it tough and in some respects overwhelming. Harlequins have only conceded one point at home this season, against London Welsh, and the Quins supporters now expect as a matter of course, four tries before half time. Rotherham do have an advantage over the other ND 1 teams as they have played at the Stoop during their time in the Premiership.

The Title has yet to be won and there can be no room for any complacency as the race will go right down to the final weeks. Rotherham are the first of three tough home games with  second placed Bedford on April 22nd and Plymouth as the opponents for the last game of the season on April 29^th.  Bedford will maintain the pressure all the way, they are away to Pertemps Bees this weekend, and have home games against Newbury and Coventry. They also play Plymouth on the same weekend as Quins make that trip to Truro in two weeks time.

It will be a tough game again but Quins defence will hold and they will power to victory. The try bonus point is there for the taking but not until the second half.

We also welcome back Steve Lander as referee this weekend. Irrespective of the Quins supporters views it is refreshing to have a referee of Premiership pedigree for such an important game, and I hope that a similar high standard of referee will be selected for the Bedford and Plymouth games. 

Come on you Quins!.

NEC Harlequins:
15. Tom Williams, 14. George Harder, 13. Will Greenwood, 12. Gavin Duffy, 11. Simon Keogh, 10. Adrian Jarvis, 9. Steve So’oialo, 1. Ceri Jones, 2. Jimmy Richards, 3. Lorne Ward, 4. Jim Evans, 5. Simon Miall, 6. Nick Easter, 7. Luke Sherriff (Capt.), 8. Tony Diprose
Replacements: 16. Aston Croall, 17. Ricky Nebbett, 18. Pablo Bouza, 19. Tom Guest, 20. Andrew Mehrtens, 21. Mel Deane, 22. Ugo Monye

Earth Titans:
15 Errie Claassens, 14 Gillan Carruthers, 13 WP Strauss, 12 Lodewyk  Strauss, 11  John Holtby, 10 Mike  Whitehead, 9 Joe Bedford, 1 Jarleth Carey, 2 Neil Hanna, 3 Adam Hopcroft, 4 Jannie Bornman, 5 Gareth McComb, 6 Hendre Fourie, 7 Neil Cochrane (Capt), 8 Scott Donald
Replacements: 16 Morne Jonker, 17 Tom Allen, 18 Nigel  Conroy, 19 Sam Walsh, 20 Jamie Kilbane, 21 Louie McGowan, 22 Chris Hala’Ufia

Match Officials:
Referee : Steve Lander
Touch Judges: Rowan Kitt  Nick Clarke