Quins v Bath - Sell out match

The Jeff is back following an interesting 6N.
Harlequins announced that the Stoop has sold out for the Bath match so hopefully the atmosphere will be fantastic (its been a while since the stoop has sold out).

The teams arent up yet but I will post them when they are available, but I expect Quins to field a strong side -

Marler
Grey
Johnston
Robson
Kohn
Faasavalou (I thinks he's fit again following a few A-league games)
Wallace
Easter

Care
N.Evans
Ugo Monye
JTH
Hopper
Tom Williams
Brown (should be fit - hasnt been used much by England)

Bench - Guest, Skinner, Stegman, Karl Dickson, Chisholm, Lowe

No place for captain Robshaw? The bench is also short the front row it's supposed to have (you also have the props the wrong way round Marler is 1 and Johnston 3). I'd expect Lowe to start ahead of Hopper as well.

Bath potentially fielding this side from their last LV match -

Sam Vesty
Matthew Banahan
Matthew Carraro
Olly Barkley
Tom Biggs
Tom Heathcote
Michael Claassens
Charlie Beech
Lee Mears
Duncan Bell
Dave Attwood
Ryan Caldwell
Carl Fearns
Francois Louw
Ben Skirving

With Guys like Flatman on the bench. Is there any news on when Stephen Donald will be back?

As a quins fan - ones to watch will be Caldwell, Louw, Biggs and Fearns

Cheers Sam,
Robshaw has played all 6N games - I rekon that he will be rested.
I'm just speculating on available players - sorry if positions are slightly out. (now corrected)
You are right, if that was the bench then you would probably take out Skinner and Chisholm. Add in Fairbrother and Mayhew + 1 hooker (Brooker injured).
Also, I noticed there was no 10 cover (so reluctantly I would have to have Clegg in there)

Hopper is making a real impact - but its a 50-50 call IMO. Both Lowe and Hopper can change a game coming off the bench.

I should be on the Press bench doing a v2Journal match report, hopefully it's a good match.

Fingers crossed Kiwi - so, what would be your prefered center pairing?
JTH-Lowe or JTH-Hopper? Or to add more into the mix - Tom Casson has been looking fairly sharp in his last appearance.

propdavid_london wrote:Fingers crossed Kiwi - so, what would be your prefered center pairing?
JTH-Lowe or JTH-Hopper? Or to add more into the mix - Tom Casson has been looking fairly sharp in his last appearance.

I was impressed by Casson last time out.

These are the kind of decisions that COS gets paid for - admittedly its good that much of the squad are putting their hands up for selection.

After such a long time between games I hope that Quins can maintain their performance levels. This would be the wrong time of the season to see a dip in form.

Oh - And Wayne Barnes is the referee.
He does seem to have a bee in his bonnet about Quins.
Expect a glut of penalties and Johnston has to be whiter than white.

propdavid_london wrote:Oh - And Wayne Barnes is the referee.
He does seem to have a bee in his bonnet about Quins.
Expect a glut of penalties and Johnston has to be whiter than white.

Although he is a Gloucester supporter of course, so I'm sure he wont favour Bath!

I am now free this weekend and am a bit disappointed that its sold out! Good for Quins of course though, both teams seem to have been wobbling lately so hopefully it should be a good game as both teams could do with the win (for very different reasons!).

Harlequins team to face Bath Rugby:
15. Mike Brown
14. Tom Williams
13. George Lowe
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Ugo Monye
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Joe Marler
2. Joe Gray
3. James Johnston
4. Olly Kohn
5. George Robson (C)
6. Tom Guest
7. Luke Wallace
8. Nick Easter

16. Rob Buchanan
17. Mark Lambert
18. Will Collier
19. Tomas Vallejos
20. Maurie Fa'asavalu
21. Karl Dickson
22. Rory Clegg
23. Ross Chisholm

Pretty much the strongest 15 we can field - The bench looks OK.
Robshaw rested
A number of injured players at the moment
Not sure if Hopper is injured or rested
Great to see Mo back.

15. Nick Abendanon

14. Olly Woodburn

13. Matt Carraro

12. Olly Barkley

11. Tom Biggs

10. Tom Heathcote

9. Michael Claassens

1. Nathan Catt

2. Pieter Dixon

3. David Wilson

4. Dave Attwood

5. Ryan Caldwell

6. Carl Fearns

7. Francois Louw (c)

8. Simon Taylor

Replacements

16. Ross Batty

17. Charlie Beech

18. Kane Palma-Newport

19. Ben Skirving

20. Guy Mercer

21. Mark McMillan

22. Dan Hipkiss

23. Jack Cuthbert

Gonna be a good match, weather looks good for running rugby which both sides are very capable of. Will be watching the whole match this week . Need a win to wipe away disappointing Stoop-based memories this week as our Medics lost Varsity there for the first time ever

WTF Evans

Couple of poor kicks. Interesting manner of reffing the rucks (particularly the tackler rolling away). Will we see this in all games? Will it continue for the rest of the season?

I thought Marler's tackle looked a lot worse from the back than it really was. But yellow arguably fair.

HammerofThunor wrote:Couple of poor kicks. Interesting manner of reffing the rucks (particularly the tackler rolling away). Will we see this in all games? Will it continue for the rest of the season?

I thought Marler's tackle looked a lot worse from the back than it really was. But yellow arguably fair.

Well he accepted the decision so I think Yellow was certainly fair. Need to step up this half, and I would really like Evans back to form for the end of the season

Marler's tackle looked nasty from the Press bench, there was a big "ooh" from everyone. Some interesting ruck calls, and what's with teams not being able to field kickoffs?

The half-time mc has just patronised and almost drooled over the cheerleaders. Cringe.

WTF EVANS?

Controversial Yellow by Barnes. Again

I thought that yellow for the early hit on Brown was a little harsh - looked OK from the south stand!
Lots of other iffy decisions by Barnes as usual too.

I have to say, on a day perfectly suited to running rugby, both teams seemed to do their best to make as many mistakes as possible!

The game was a summary of Bath's season in many ways, a game which we could have won or at least got something from but silly mistakes means we go home with nothing. Something is not right with the coaching there at the moment, changes to come in the summer I would hope.

Lack of precision really cost Bath, as Harlequins were there for the taking.

Neither team performed - which was very dissapointing.
Conditions were there, players were there.

2 possible reasons -
2 weeks off - players are a bit rusty after holidays
Wayne Barnes being exceptionally whistle happy.

The refs had apparently received an e-mail on Sat morning from POB about things they were to stamp down on. I suspect that Barnes - who has just been dropped from the Elite panel - was trying to please the boss.

Things he was picking up on such as SH lifting in the lineout, were then totally ignored by the ref on sunday.

Things he was picking up on such as SH lifting in the lineout, were then totally ignored by the ref on sunday.

I think that says more about the ref on the Sunday than it does about Barnes.

I'll take winning uglily over losing prettily

Hi CJ.
Completely agree - 3-0 win at Wembley would do me.

It would interesting to see what happened if Barnes' penalising for not rolling away was carried on by all ref for an extended period of time. Players do it to slow the ball down a secord or two, which can have a significant impact. If you give away a penalty every time would we have cleaning rucks?

Is Evans still off form? I didn't get to see any of the games this weekend as was moving house but would really have liked something a bit more solid from us.

Still a win is a win. How do Mo look when he came on? We'll need him at the top of his game for the play offs, and especially Wembley.

Evans was awful, he hasnt played well since Toulouse away. Mo looked very good until he flattened Heathcote.

I'm wondering if his knee is causing him problems again like it was at the tail end of last season.
The problem is that Clegg has seen next to no game time so will be even worse when he does make an appearance.

Maurie did look very hungry - will be good to have him back.

his knee seems fine - its not strapped at all.

Evans is really off form, it's really worrying. I guess we have to keep playing him and hope he sorts it out, I thoroughly believe we need a firing Evans to win the playoffs

Maybe he needs a rest? He has played a lot this season and as the experienced bloke in the team must have a lot of pressure on his shoulders. Would be good to give Clegg more time over the next few games.

Do we have any other 10's in the academey? It seems to be a real area of weakness for us.