What's Going Wrong at The Stoop?

Last night the current Premiership Champions lost their third Premiership game on the trot for the first time in three seasons. A spirited Gloucester side showed too much pace and skill for a Quins team desperate to put performance before result. Before that Harlequins had lost at home to a mean spirited Exeter and away to a fantastically powerful Saracens.

Through all of these game Harlequins showed the same basic mistakes in decision making and handling that hadn't occurred the season before, the team was easily panicked and when they went behind there was little composure as they tried to throw the ball around from anywhere on the pitch, often getting themselves in to trouble in their own half and then gifting more points to the opposition.

On top of this the Quins defence has been porous, and really lacking bite until last night. Against Saracens some of the Sarries attacks looked like they were being run against the local youth team rather then the current champs. We've not helped this by kicking poorly and feeding teams good ball to use against us.

A few things that may be causing this slump:
1. Nick Evans is only just finding some form this year
2. Chris Robshaw hasn't been himself when he has played, and has been away with the 6N's
3. We've missed Kohn and Care through the 6N's and their replacements just aren't quite as good
4. Teams are targeting us as Champions and where before we may have snuck games we're now finding an opposition who want to put the boot in
5. Our attacking play has been figured out; Hit our rucks, slow our ball and tackle us high and we have little else to offer
6. Last seasons win was a little misleading; We are no where near a finished article as a team, our depth isn't as good as it needs to be in some positions and we do not have enough experience through the squad to make it through a long season.

Of course things are not all bad we're in the knock outs of Europe and have a home game against Munster next week. We've won the LV Cup with a very young team playing some of the best team rugby in the comp and we are still in the top four of the Premiership. Luke Wallace looks like he's going to cause COS issues with who to play on the flanks, Trayfoot as well looks like an able replacement for Big Mo and Buchanan has shown he's a beast of a hooker with bags of physicality.

If we win the next few games then we'll be back on track, but compared to 4 months ago that is now a massive if.

Sorry to be so doom and gloom, it's not meant to read that way, i'd just like to start some reasonable discussion on Quins and just what is going on with them.

COYQ's!!

I think it may partly be about teams finding out Quins but also about Quins being in a slight transition stage. Both in terms of game plan and working out alternative player combinations. Quins close carrying around the rucks with support players flooding channels either side was effective but it looks like COS is looking at alternatives with more first phase ball going to the backs. Looks like the focus is now on getting it out quicker and making sure running lines are top draw (see Lowe in the Glos game) and rucking from the backs is decent.

Perhaps now is not the time in the season to be trying out different personnel, but the use of new approaches might actually come in handy with teams analysing Quins a lot better. I think COS may have been a little too quick to believe Quins approach had been worked out. It was still mighty effective. But certainly it hasn't worked against very aggressive close quarter defences like Sarries.

At this point, I think COS and his coaches are experimenting a bit too much but it's the right attitude. It may be one of those things where you only see the benefits next year.

Would agree though that he's very much a 'performance first result second' guy - in a way I really like that. It's an admirable quality in such a high pressure job. I think Quins have shown that they CAN deliver under pressure. It's just a case of them lacking a little consistency this year.

Yeah yesterdays tactics were a little different to the other games and seemed to work better, perhaps helped by Casson and Lowe in the mid field instead of JTH and Hopper, and having Chisholm and Smith on the wings to receive the ball.

As you say though i'm not sure if this is the correct time to experiment, but perhaps next season we'll see from this greater depth in the squad and the ability to play the close in game and a wider game.

At tis point, as long as we can still get to the top 4 by any means necessary, I agree with chasing the performance not the result. Our performances in past weeks and most season have been sub-par, and that is what is upsetting with big matches coming and with COS' attitude that we should always aim to impose our game on people. I am glad we played well yesterday. Gutted we lost but at least unlike Sarries we can take something positive from this and we can beat Munster at home, and can win our remaining AP matches and build into an end of season surge. Poor wins won't build momentum, we've had them all season and this team already know how to win, they haven't forgotten that in 3 matches. We had forgotten how to play and we will need to play well to beat Saints and Munster and the semifinal opponents in each competition

All I can say is you have played us twice and were very good twice - in fact I would say you performed better against us this season than you did last season.