By Nev's Left Boot
September 1 2016

After the razzamatazz of the RWC made the last season seem like the longest ever, it has been quite nice to have a proper season break – although for a lot of our squad there has barely been time to rest before strapping on the kit for another marathon of rugby. The big question that every pundit and part time key board warrior is contemplating is “What will the season have in store?”.

For Quins one has to look back over the last few seasons before thinking about the future – Quins have been a team built on some simple rugby structures – the title winning team played fast rugby, coming round the corner with big men and flooding the channels they created with quick, nimble hands and feet. But crucially it was built on a very solid physical platform – Ollie Kohn, Big Mo, James Johnston; this platform has never really been replaced. Quins have never quite managed the same penetration to allow for the delicate parts of our game to flow. We’ve never played a traditional ‘Kick for territory game’ under Nick Evans and since George Robson left we have struggled with the Line out – key point here being the line out seemed to work more often than not with him playing with any of our current hookers!

Last season was ultimately a bit of a shambles – it started well in terms of results and it is easy to look back on the period leading up to Christmas with fond memories of victories and challenging for top honours once again. The victory over Saracens in January seemed to suggest that Quins could go on to challenge for bigger honours, considering the opponents and the nature of the game. In reality it precipitated a long, slow slide out of contention, first for the play-offs and, eventually, for Europe. In reality, in those early months it never felt like we were dominant or confident of victory – in hindsight perhaps other teams were a little off the pace?The announcement of Conor’s departure coincided with the start of this slump, and it’s difficult to assess just what impact this had on the squad. Suffice to say that, despite repeated protestations of wanting to finish his tenure with some silverware, the squad looked less cohesive at the end of the season than at the beginning.

With the arrival of the 6 Nations and the removal of our internationals, coupled with some bad timing for injuries, the wheels fell off Quins’ incipient challenge and it never really came back together. By the end of the season we never looked like winning (Montpellier) often and at times it was a bit embarrassing (Exeter) – and that was with a pretty much full choice XV.

Over the close season we have said good bye to Conor & with a shuffle around we welcome Graham Rowntree – a coach that I think it is safe to say most people would welcome at their club and one who managed to create quite a formidable pack during his time with England.
The rest of the coaching set up has a familiar ring to it – however there are key changes – Conor’s job has gone to John Kingston – he has stated that his job is much less hands on than Head Coach – he will be dealing with contracts and the direction of the team – Mark Mapletoft is now in the JK role – Head Coach – working with Rowntree and Colin Osborne and Nick Easter (Defence).

On the playing side we have welcomed a grizzled lock from NZ in the form of Mark Reddish, an aspiring full back in Aaron Morris (why we didn’t get Ben Ransom though I don’t know!), a prospect at prop in Cameron Holenstein, a wily old veteran at 8 in the form of George Naoupu, Charlie Mulchrone at 9 and Ruaridh Jackson at 10. It is safe to say that from a fans perspective (particularly as you see the recruitment of other teams) these are largely underwhelming signings however one has to remember the quality that was added to the squad last season in terms of Visser (international and top try scorer), Roberts (Lion), Horwill (Aussie Captain).

While not recruiting any stellar names (Wasps, anyone?) Quins are trying to plug some persistent gaps in the squad. Jackson should prove a more than able deputy for Nick Evans (or more experienced than Botica, at least) and Charlie Mulchrone is likely to put pressure on Karl Dickson, whose recent form has not always lived up to previous heights. The backline, indeed, shows a high level of promise and excitement: the emergence of Harry Sloan and Joe Marchant is great back up for our expected Roberts/Lowe centre combination, and we have pace to burn in the back three with Visser, Yarde, Morris, Chisholm and Walker all available.

The vital ingredient in all this is the forwards though. If we can’t get go forward ball, it’s going to be difficult to allow any of these players time and space to pose questions to opposing teams. We welcome Marler, hopefully fully recovered from what must have been a difficult time for him. Keeping Sam Twomey fit and adding the physical prowess of Netani Talei, sadly missing from last season.

It would seem that the starting XV is going to have a familiar look to it – with it being unlikely that any of the new boys will force their way in straight away – There are a couple of other squad things to consider from last season as well – The return of Netani Talei from injury is a boost to resources, the emergence of Sam Twomey who was fantastic last season, Joe Marchant is also starting to put pressure on for a starting spot – so these are all positives.

Possible V Probable XV (or starters versus cover)

All the pundits have already stated that this is likely to be the toughest Premiership ever – Bristol will make a fist of it – they have signed seasoned campaigners and have enough to stay up, whilst potentially bloodying the lip of one or two teams. Of the other teams at the lower end, Newcastle will pick up points just based on the geographical nature of their matches, Worcester finished well last season and have made some handy signings, but the significance of Ryan leaving, remains to be seen.
I think the top four or five teams, will be largely the same – with Saracens, Leicester, Wasps and Exeter all being too well set up to fall far.

Leaving a core of middle teams fighting for middle – Northampton, Sale, Gloucester, Bath and ourselves – Northampton were rugged if unspectacular last year – Sale have lost key players from last season, but travelling to the north west will still not be fun, Gloucester….who knows? They may have cracked it this year, or another year of unpredictability, and Bath have serious question marks over there squad – the first XV is still very very strong and with the right attitude it will be formidable but they are desperately light in key positions, centre being one of them and when the Autumn International and 6 nations come calling they are going to struggle to have a side unless urgent recruitment happens.

Quins – based on what I have seen in the pre-season are not really doing anything different. Very little penetration at times in attack, lots of one on one runners crashing into defenders. Scrums have been hard to gauge with them essentially being a mess.
In defence we have also looked easy to unpick – essentially if a team/players get behind us, they score – or we seem too narrow and they get round us and score. First-up tackling at times last year was appalling, and we lacked aggression that would fend teams off. If that hasn’t changed, it could be a long and painful season.