The match is expected to be much more difficult for Quins who will meet a far grittier, down to earth, and determined opponent, than those they meet last weekend, in a leafy, affluent, Birmingham suburb. Ironically, Otley are ND 1's "Men in Black", and play in a team strip that will certainly appeal to Mehrtens who must remember that he now plays in a more colourful shirt these days! The Otley black shirt is emblazoned with their sponsors' name, "Cadbury", which is not such a strange union as you may think, hmmm Choc-otley. Quins therefore will need to ensure the "Yorkies, Ripple, Flake, and Rolo-ver" before they have a chance to exploit their "Bounty" of "Black Magic".

Otley have a certain reputation and style of play that is well known and which no doubt will be on show on Saturday afternoon. They will prove stiff opposition especially playing at home, probably on long grass. Their resolve is backed up by a wealth of statistics, finishing in fifth place in the division last season, exactly the same position as the previous year. They amassed a total of 80 points of which 10 were winning bonus points, finishing the season with 17 wins, 1 draw and 8 defeats, recording a home win against every team in the division with the exception of the eventual league winners Bristol, losing 13- 16 in a tight match, and Bedford Blues, their opponents last weekend. 'Doubles' were recorded against Penzance & Newlyn, Rotherham, Nottingham, Sedgley Park, London Welsh, and relegated Henley & Orrell. With five of their players starting all 26 league matches, Otley scored 68 tries in total whilst conceding 44 tries, giving them the second best defensive record in the league behind the champions Bristol. This was achieved, at a cost of 17 yellow cards and 2 red cards.

Otley opened their 2005/6 season by slugging out a 16-16 draw with Bedford Blues, with all their points coming from their prolific scorer, fly half Simon Binns. His points were collected from a "full house" of a try, and conversion, two penalties, one from the half way line and a 35 metre drop-goal! At half time the scores were level at 13 -13 and the second half proved hard work with each side picking up just 3 penalty points, over the 40 minutes. I understand Bedford also missed three kickable penalties.

That doyen of the Sunday newspaper "Bedfordshire on Sunday" reported that Bedford played most of the rugby, but Otley`s spoiling tactics were never easy to overcome. The referee allowed them to slow the game down at every opportunity and the fact that the grass was long enough to be classed as deep rough on a golf course hardly helped Bedford`s attempt to play a fast moving game." After the match Bedford`s coach Mike Rayer was reported as saying "In the first half there was only one side in it, but you have to hand it to Otley, they did what they do best ,very well. It would seem to me though that if you want people coming through the turnstiles you have got to have two sides at the party - and the referee has to play his part as well."

The Otley team will still be without their influential full back Ian Shuttleworth who is nursing a broken wrist. Shuttleworth was in the starting line up for all of their first team matches last season. He is replaced by Tom Rock. Centre Kyle Dench is also out with a hamstring injury, and his place is taken by Chris Hyndman, who signed from Northampton in the summer. Like most teams Otley will field a South Sea Islander in Fiji born Waisale Sovatabua on the wing. He lines up against Harder. As mentioned earlier fly half Simon Binns and scrum half Dave Scully are very experienced and will do what hey can to disrupt our flow and keep the game in our half, but Quins have more than a match for them with our half back pairing. In the second row Otley are expected to field Paul Williams and Howard Parr both who missed most of last season due to injury and Armed services duty.

There has been much comment, discussion and debate about the way Quins played their first ND 1 match. Dean Richards was unhappy despite the win, and put the unforced errors and poor ball retention down to first match nerves. Richards said: "If every player was fair to themselves they'd say their skill levels weren't up to what is expected. We tried to push the game too much and made a huge amount of unforced errors. That was reflected in the way we played and the result. "Our line outs and scrums were far better than the opposition, and we did appear to control the field out wide. I m not looking for excuses for the performance, but It was the first game of the season, it was a hot afternoon on a very hard pitch, away from home and despite playing not that well we did win. We have to remember that Richards did announce a "Horses for Courses" strategy this season and this secured us the result we needed. Perhaps more importantly it enabled us to pick up a valuable four try bonus point, and this has to be the target for every single game this year. As succinctly reported in the Guardian, "Wherever they go this season, Quins will be on a hiding to nothing: expected to win handsomely and at the same time mouth-watering targets for the part-timers. "It's a no-win situation," said Richards, echoing his Bees counterpart Phil Maynard, who reckoned that "anything less than 50 points won't be counted as a result for them - 50 was par."

It is the formidable Otley pack, with "back up" on the bench, which Quins will have to master and I expected to see a more experienced front row, than started last week against Bees. It appears that Richards is still experimenting with combinations, but this must be affected by the injuries to Jones, Worsley and Fuga. No disrespect to Richards and Rodgers who played a fine debut, but against Otley we have to wheel out the biggest guns available. Nebbett already has the experience, and can look after himself. Quins fitness should eventually prevail against the part timers, especially up front later in the game, and we should inflict a faster running game as we certainly have the resource, in Monye, Harder, Williams, Turner Hall and Keogh, to do that.

Jordon Turner Hall at 17 is a revelation. Having already played for England under 18s he had a good first team debut. Lining up late in the match between legends Greenwood and Mehrtens his Mum must have made been proud! His form last weekend has made him a continued choice this week along side Greenwood. I missed all of the pre season matches so last Saturday was the first time I seen him in action, although I must have seen him play in the second XV sometime last year. I cannot believe he is the same age as my "loose head" son. It was also the first time that I'd seen Mehrtens in a quartered shirt and he did not disappoint, with his kicking and passing assisting a number of tries, which he eagerly converted. It was interesting to observe that ALL the tries were out down under the post, to enable a guaranteed conversion, and he never kicked for goal with any of the penalties.

Maybe it was due to a tiring opposition but Quins only took full control late in the game when Messrs Vass, Easter and Greenwood arrived. Easter's break from the base off a scrum supplied a fast ball to the backs. Greenwood's sublime well weighted cross field kick, was eagerly swooped on by Ugo who then ran in his second try and the try bonus point. This was the best move of the match, and pressed home our advantage. As we moved into injury time it was Vass who released Harder down the right wing for his second try. I'm very pleased / relieved to see all three start this weekend. Vass is far more composed than So'oialo There was some surprise last weekend at the water boys Keogh and Deane, neither of whom looked very happy about the situation, yet both shone in the "A"s match the Monday evening, and are on the bench this week. I fully expect that they will play some part in the latter stages of the game, maybe with Keogh at scrum half in the absence of SS, however I expect we will similar decisions through out the season, Duffy reverts to full back to replace the injured Tom Williams.

This is to be a tight match I expect Quins to come out on top, and should achieve a four try bonus but Otley will run them close and are bound to bag a couple of tries themselves. Otley are beatable at Cross Green.

As a postscript; referring back to the thread regarding the reporting of Quins in the media, it was not all old clichés and negativity in the broadsheets last week. On Monday the Independent reported "the message Harlequins sent out to the rest of the First Division, after this five-try demolition was that, once they iron out their errors and get their act together, they should take some stopping".

Harlequins continue to try very hard to shake off their old image & "and you try and tell the people of the press today that..... they won't believe you. They won't!"

Come on you Quins!

NEC Harlequins:
15. Gavin Duffy, 14. George Harder, 13. Will Greenwood, 12. Jordan Turner-Hall, 11. Ugo Monye, 10. Andrew Mehrtens, 9. Ian Vass, 1. Mike Worsley, 2. Tani Fuga, 3. Ricky Nebbett, 4. Jim Evans, 5. Simon Miall, 6. Andre Vos (c), 7. Luke Sherriff, 8. Nick Easter
Replacements: 16. Jimmy Richards, 17. Lorne Ward, 18. Pablo Bouza, 19. Tony Diprose
20. Simon Keogh, 21. Adrian Jarvis, 22. Mel Deane

Otley:
15. Tom Rock, 14. Rob Whatmuff, 13. Chris Hyndman, 12. Paul Mooney, 11. Waisale Sovatabua, 10. Simon Binns, 9. Dave Scully, 1. Justin Wring, 2. Mark Luffman, 3. Kris Fullman, 4. Paul Williams, 5. Howard Parr, 6. James Tiffany, 7. Nathan Bland, 8. Glen Wilson (c)
Replacements: 16. Ben Fear, 17. Matt Stockdale, 18. Scott Connor, 19. Andy Brown, 20. Robin Kitching, 21. Richard Pike, 22. Duncan Sayers

Match Officials:
Referee: Tim Beddow
Touch judges: Mark Wilson, Rob Sawyer

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