By Leipziger
October 1 2010

The mighty Falcons (sic) will be out to prove the video nasty of last weekend was a one-off when the ESPN cameras descend on the Stoop this Saturday to watch our lads take on Harlequins.

This will be our debut on the Premiership’s newest broadcaster, and we won our last away match live on TV, at Wasps in January, so there is an omen there.

Our record at the ground now called the Twickenham Stoop is not great in recent years however.  In April we were denied a bonus point by a late Nick Evans try, his second of the game to condemn us to a ninth successive defeat in this fixture.  A 15-9 reverse in March 2008 followed a loss at Leeds a week earlier, and ended with a confrontation (massive overstatement) between Dave Thompson and some travelling Newcastle fans.

We did win on three of our first four trips to the Stoop in the Premiership though – the most famous obviously being the unforgettable 20-44 victory in May 1998, which secured the Premiership title for the Falcons.

Quins won their last home match 40-13 against Exeter on Saturday.  Scores from Nick Easter and Gonzalo Camacho alongside a penalty try, all converted by Nick Evans who also kicked four penalties, had secured a home win before Tom Guest secured the bonus point.  Mark Foster scored the Chiefs’ try, making us the only Premiership side to shut him out so far this season – there’s a quirky stat for you.

Our hosts’ triumph followed up a winless first three games in which the high point was a thrilling 29-29 draw with Wasps at Twickenham.  Quins then lost 16-20 at home to Northampton before a remarkably similar scoreline at Edgeley Park, where Sale were the victors 21-17.

Conor O’Shea and John Kingston’s squad retains Quins’ regular balance of youth and experience, as Pete Browne joined his former Falcons academy colleague Rory Clegg at the Stoop this summer.  The back-five forward has come on as a replacement in all of his new side’s four matches so far.  Clegg competes for his place in the team with talented All Black Evans, still at the club following an April Fool’s Day rumour that he would be taking a year’s sabbatical to look after the mythical cardanter bird in New Zealand.

The Kiwi is regularly partnered at half-back by England star Danny Care, an inconsistent player who is nonetheless capable of the mercurial.  He has scored 16 tries in over 70 games for Harlequins since moving to London from Leeds in 2006, and has 21 England caps.  Care’s competition comes from Lee Dickson’s brother Karl.

Quins have a number of promising backs such as Jordan Turner-Hall and George Lowe, both of whom have been mentioned as potential England stars of the future, to go alongside the controversial Tom Williams, the experienced Mike Brown and fans’ favourite Ugo Monye.  Having taken a few years to force his way into the England side, Monye now has 13 caps and has scored more than 60 tries for Harlequins at a rate of just over one try in every two starts.  Supoib.

Former Leicester and Lions centre Ollie Smith also returned to England from France to join Quins this summer.

There is no less talent in the pack where England’s Nick Easter and skipper Chris Robshaw are regulars in the back row.  Robshaw, appointed club captain this summer, played his 100^th game in a quartered shirt against Exeter, a total matched by another former Tiger Will Skinner.  Tom Guest has only started one match so far this season, against Sale, and of his 119 appearances for the first team almost half (57) have been from the bench.  He is a heck of a replacement to have available though and has been a regular in the Saxons squad in recent years.

Having thought Bloodgate was behind them, the scandal continues to dog the club as we have seen the physio involved, Stephen Brennan, being struck off recently.  The appointment of O’Shea, who called the Stoop home in 1999/2000 when London Irish shared the ground, as Director of Rugby was supposed to herald a new start, and he has largely escaped criticism from fans for Quins’ poor start as anger has instead been focused on head coach Kingston.  I didn’t know until this week that Kingston, a Stoop stalwart since 2001, played for Gosforth in the 1980s.

Alan Tait has rung the changes for the Stoop, bringing in Jeremy Manning, Luke Fielden, Rob Vickerman, Chris Pilgrim, Grant Shiells and Will Welch.  Jon Golding and Micky Young drop to the bench alongside Luke Eves and Alex Tait, while Mark Wilson is rewarded for a strong outing in the reserves this week with a replacement spot.  Filipo Levi, who polarised opinion against Irish last week, continues alongside Tim Swinson in the second row, and Andy Henderson keeps his place.  Gcobani Bobo and Brent Wilson drop out of the 22 completely.

15 Jeremy Manning
14 Luke Fielden
13 Rob Vickerman
12 Andy Henderson
11 Charlie Amesbury
10 Jimmy Gopperth
9 Chris Pilgrim
1 Grant Shiells
2 Rob Vickers (captain)
3 Tim Ryan
4 Filipo Levi
5 Tim Swinson
6 Will Welch
7 Redford Pennycook
8 Ally Hogg

Replacements

16 Joe Graham
17 Kieran Brookes
18 Jon Golding
19 Glen Townson
20 Mark Wilson
21 Micky Young
22 Luke Eves
23 Alex Tait

Quins name the same starting XV that defeated Exeter, although Tom Williams is back on the bench in place of Ross Chisholm.  Easter, Robshaw and Skinner make up the strong back row and Care and Evans are united at full-back.  Williams is joined in the replacements by former Falcons Browne and Clegg, as well as prop Ceri Jones, a semi-frequent try-scorer against us in the past.

15 Mike Brown
14 Gonzalo Camacho
13 Ollie Smith
12 Jordan Turner-Hall
11 George Lowe
10 Nick Evans
9 Danny Care
1 Joe Marler
2 Matt Cairns
3 James Johnston
4 Ollie Kohn
5 Tomas Vallejos
6 Chris Robshaw (Captain)
7 Will Skinner
8 Nick Easter

Replacements

16 Chris Brooker
17 Ceri Jones 
18 Mark Lambert 
19 Peter Browne
20 Tom Guest
21 Karl Dickson 
22 Rory Clegg
23 Tom Williams

While insisting we are not a bad team, according to the print version of The Journal today Tait has reminded the players this week that they are playing for their shirts and that if they don’t earn them, someone else will.  Strong words, we’ll see what effect they have tomorrow afternoon.