By Worried of Whitton
April 7 2005

This weekend the Zurich Premiership reaches Round 20, with all the fixtures being the reverse ties of those matches played on the first day of the season back on September 4th. Harlequins face their old adversary London Irish, who will be commuting up to town from the depths of the Home Counties.

In an effort to further our home advantage and unnerve our opponents and supporters the match will be played in a dedicated rugby ground on a Saturday afternoon with a three o’clock kick off.  Saturday April 9^th was already scheduled to be a great day in the Sporting calendar with the running of the Grand National at Aintree and the US Masters in Georgia. In addition recent World events have conspired to make it a even greater day, but the only event that matters come Saturday afternoon is the match between Harlequins and London Irish, at a sold out Stoop. 

There is no doubt about it, this highly charged fixture takes on an even greater importance as on current standings Quins in eighth and Irish in tenth are still “fighting” to secure their Premiership survival. Although it is unlikely that either team will be relegated to National Division 1, there is still that mathematical chance, and the London Irish ability to party, whatever the result is not part of the criteria for staying up. With just six premiership points between bottom placed Leeds and Harlequins all the final three matches of this year’s campaign are vital. Three teams have a similar points difference ( for – against) Quins  -36, Northampton -44 , and London Irish -39, whereas Worcester are adrift on -120  and Leeds on -84, and these could play a role come the final day of the season. Harlequins have picked up a greater number of bonus points earned this season which goes to show just how close our losses have been, and how fine the line is between success and failure. This was clearly illustrated with the results from Round 19 of the Premiership, two weeks ago when all the winning teams won by four points or less

The fate of both teams is in their own hands, neither side can rely on the results of the other teams who are also languishing in the drop zone. Again this was demonstrated two weeks ago when Andy Goode missed a penalty and handed Leeds an unexpected yet crucial win, The relegation battle which was expected to have been resolved that weekend, remains wide open. 

London Irish had fairly good start to their season, they certainly got the better of us in a poor game played under a baking September sky at Twickenham but like the forecast weather this weekend an icy blast during the second half of their season have seen them slump to mediocrity and underachievement. More especially London Irish appear to have forgotten how to score tries, a characteristic which was not helped by the recent transfer of their only real try scorer Paul Sackey to Wasps. Reliance on the boot, albeit from Barry Everitt does not win matches, although Harlequins will need to ensure discipline and not give away needless penalties within kicking range. 

Not to detract from the poor performance we have witnessed at Quins during the autumn, but looking at their recent form London Irish only have 2 wins to show from their last 10 games, compared to a relatively, renascent Harlequins who have lost just 4 four of their last 10 Premiership matches. Historically London Irish have had the better form of the two clubs in recent Premiership meetings with Irish winning 8 matches to Quins 5 and two draws. Two weeks ago, try less Irish went down 12-13 to Gloucester, whilst Quins, away to Northampton, were robbed of their win by the final kick (albeit a conversion) from the boot of Shane Drahm. Yet Mark Evans still believes one more point, from our final three games will secure Premiership rugby next year, although the new focus is to qualify for the Wild card play offs, and a chance of a place in the Heineken Cup. 

Announcing their team early, a confident London Irish have made two changes to the starting line-up to the team that played a spiritless Gloucester two weeks ago. Michael Horak returns at full back after recovering from illness, whilst Delon Armitage switches to the left wing as a result. On the forward line Adrian Flavin comes in at hooker for Robbie Russell who broke his hand during the Gloucester game. Irish also announced that Peter Poulos (knee) was unavailable for selection through injury.

The Good news for Harlequins is the return to fitness of Will Greenwood. Although he did not play against Northampton, he  did play a full match, as fly half, in the Second XV victory against Bath 10 days ago, scoring all of Quins points. Cynics may point out that his return neatly coincides with the imminent announcement of the Woodward Lions squad. That may be, but he is likely to be well and truly motivated for a good display on Saturday. Hindsight will show that his some time lacklustre performances earlier this season were down to his shoulder injury that had been around since the World Cup. As reported in the Daily Telegraph, Greenwood has said “I feel in as good a shape as I have done for a long while”. He added “I used to smile when I heard footballers banging on about needing time to get match fit, reckoning that they were just looking for four games leeway. Well I m hanging on to that now. I need match fitness.”  On Saturday afternoon he will have a point to prove.

Greenwood is one of four changes to the side that played Northampton. Greenwood’s return sees Gavin Duffy move to full back to replace the injured Tom Williams. Dafydd James starts alongside his old Lions partner, while Mel Deane drops to the bench. Ugo Monye, who sustained a calf injury in the Hong Kong 7s make a return and therefore Simon Keogh, also drops to the bench. However I fully expect to see Keogh to play a part in Saturdays match, he is too much of a live wire to remain on the bench, and always seems to excel in a match against London Irish.

James Hayter has recovered from his groin injury sufficiently enough to replace Tani Fuga as hooker, with replacement Ace Tiatia on the bench. Fuga sustained a knee injury and will sadly miss the remainder of the season. Tani has once again had a great season for Quins.

Arwel Thomas keeps his place ahead of Staunton who is returning from Injury. By all accounts Thomas had a good match against Northampton and scored a fine solo try on his First team debut. Having seen him play in the seconds game against Wasps his kicking was positive. He needs to ensure that kick for kick he more than matches that of Everitt. 

The Quins starting XV looks very sharp  with a formidable front  line and back line but the bench will also cause Irish concern as all six players have been first team starters during the season and if they come on they  will pack a punch,  metaphorically speaking of course!.

London Irish are worried about this match with so much at stake. In their match preview, and by their own admission London Irish are clinging to an extremely tenuous statistic that Harlequins haven’t won at home on a “non international” weekend this season.  This is an irrelevance bearing in mind that, unlike Harlequins, London Irish have not provided any players for any of the Six Nations squads, and therefore would not have fielded a side depleted of Internationals. 

London Irish have not won at the Stoop since September 2001 and that is one statistic that is unlikely to change this weekend. Looking at the Quins team sheet it is difficult to see Irish breaching the Quins defence and reaching the try line. Quins on the other hand will have an all out assault spearheaded by Greenwood, James, Monye and Harder. 

A tough and hard fought match will ensue and London Irish will not be under estimated in their resolve but it is hard not to predict a Quins will win by at least 10 points.

 

Come on you Quins!

NEC Harlequins: 15.Gavin Duffy, 14.George Harder, 13.Will Greenwood, 12.Dafydd James,                11. Ugo Monye,10.Arwel Thomas, 9.Steve So’oialo,1.Mike Worsley, 2.James Hayter, 3.Ceri Jones,  4.Jim Evans, 5.Simon Miall, 6.Nick Easter, 7.Andre Vos (c) 8.Tony Diprose
Replacements: 16. Ace Tiatia,17. Jon Dawson,18. Roy Winters,19. Luke Sherriff, 20. Simon Keogh, 21. Jeremy Staunton, 22. Mel Deane

 

London Irish:   15. Michael Horak; 14. Scott Staniforth; 13. Geoff Appleford; 12. Mike Catt; 11. Delon Armitage; 10. Barry Everitt; 9. Darren Edwards; 1. Neal Hatley; 2. Adrian Flavin; 3. Rob Hardwick; 4. Ryan Strudwick (c); 5. Bob Casey; 6. Paul Gustard; 7. Kieron Dawson; 8. Roland Reid.
Replacements from: Doug Wheatley; David Paice; Nick Kennedy; Declan Danaher; Kieran Roche; Mark Mapletoft; Paul Hodgson; Justin Bishop.

 

Match Officials

Referee:  Dave Pearson 
Touch judges: Huw Jones-Williams, Paul Emerson