Harlequins
The Good & The Bad: Quins v Bath
By Battering Ram Winger
October 5 2009
Having missed the match live, I took the liberty of perusing it at my leisure on Sunday over a hangover cure of bacon, eggs and fried slice. And so, I offer you my appraisal of the match. Good
1) WE WON!
An important, vitally needed victory for us. I think had we not won this one we would have been in real trouble but I suspect this was a win in similar fashion to Orrell away - monkey off the back with the press, fans going home smiling and the team looking absolutely ecstatic.
2) The finish
Even knowing the result (thank you father, and thank your mobile phone) my heart was still pounding like a drum as I wondered just how we were actually going to score. Sky certainly get their money's worth out of our games when it comes to late drama!
3) The return of Mike Brown
Ugo's been an able deputy but Brown's the guy that solidifies the backline, he catches well, kicks well, adds that set piece boot, can truck it up hard and is aggro personified, as his spat with Hooper showed.
4) The defence
Looking like Quins of last year with the smothering multi-coloured wall. The fact that it took Bath until we had a fly half filling the 13 channel to score a try and that we turned over so much of their ball close in to the line shows we're getting some of the venom back. I also think that the loss of Ross, Robson and Percival has meant that our pack, which was pretty much consistently picked en masse last season, has had problems adjusting to new members and they're only now starting to get an idea of what the new bugs can do and remembering what Jim Evans' strengths and weaknesses are.
Tiesi also leads the defensive line, but I wish he'd improve his tackling technique or he's going to keep getting nasty head injuries. Ugo's last ditch effort personified how much he's developed as a player, I thought.
5) The set piece
I'm sure Perrygo disagrees, but congrats to the pack for getting a measure of parity with Bath at both the scrum and lineout. Neither were perfect, but neither were dominated and I suspect with the return of Robson and Percival it can only get better.
6) Nick Evans
Ball in hand, he was excellent, his knee seems to have healed up and he looks a lot happier. I have a theory about his place kicking - he generally only gets the pressure ones (the one to draw us level here, against Leicester, the SF drop goal) as he seems to miss the easy chances!
7) Shontayne Hape
Thank you, you stupid, showboating fool for coasting in and leaping in the air like you'd scored a hat trick try in 50-0 drubbing. If you'd kept your head down. your pace up and got closer to the posts before cavorting like a nincompoop, perhaps Little's conversion would have been a little more straightforward.
Bad
1) Tiesi off looking a bit banged up again
See above.
2) Last gasp dramas
Can we have a routine win, please?
3) Set piece still wobbly
Hopefully this will improve as above.
4) Stuart Barnes' commentary
As exemplified by his apparently forgetting that a bad bounce can turn a good kick into a bad one, when Care grubbered it through to chase Abendanon in the second half, the ball suddenly pitched up into the air for an easy pass to the clearing kicker. Barnes seized upon this as a terrible kick - IT WAS THE BOUNCE, YOU FOOL! If it had kept rolling as intended, Abendanon would have been forced to turn back to his try line and gather with us bearing down on him, the original intention of the kick. And his habit of praising a single player to the heavens from whichever team happens to be on top at the moment.
Still, a win's a win and we looked more like last season's form is slowly returning. Now for the season to start!
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Tiesi looked a bit annoyed to come off so hopefully he wasn't as bad as he looked earlier in the game when he looked rather dazed after another incredible tackle
BRW GOOD:
8) Tiesi. If he can stay if (and under contract to us, especially once the 4N kicks in) we may well look back on him as one of the great Harlequins. The whole backline looked better with him and Mike on. And he shattered Banahan's confidence with an early tackle.
I saw him leaving the ground with Gonzo II (another promising prospect) and he seemed OK, so I suspect the substitution was precautionary
9) Tosh. Looked much more comfortable with an experienced OC outside him
10) Stretts. Not quite back to his best form, but looking fit and ready to give it a go
BAD:
5) Handling. Far, far too many basic handling errors, albeit in fairly tricky conditions (the wind was strong enough that it kicked up a dust storm at the south end at one point)
6) If you compare Saturday to the Bath away last year, there was a similar pattern - Quins absorbing the pressure for much of the match, but doing enough to win - but something was missing. We never looked to be out of the game, but I never felt that sense of control (until, ironically enough, the final sequence). Let's hope that this is the point where we start to get that back
7) EPS - looks like we might have to rest Danny, Nick and Ugo next week against Cardiff. We've got able replacements in Steve, Tom and Gonzo II, but it's a big ask.
1) I thought Lewis Stevenson had his best game for us yet. I wasn't sure about him until now but I thought he was awesome on Saturday
2) Great to see Ugo taking a leadership role and helping some of the younger players around him
3) We really played as a team and it was great to see all the boys supporting each other
Weaknesses
1) Andress struggled with Flatman. I think the latter was boring in but he got away with it. I think Andress will come good but on Saturday he was outscrummed by a much more experienced prop.
The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George
The photos of the match show Guest being tackled by two guys... and then him sprinting away having shrugged them off. Top work and it keeps the pressure up on Easter (who had a fine game, particularly in the lineout).
Much of the game was turgid with neither defences allowing much to happen.
Bath's handling in the backs looked sharper along the line but little penetration. Quins were the opposite with the occassion incisive break that should have troubled the scoreboard more than it did.
I said it on another thread, but the back line looks much better balanced with Mike "Anger Management" Brown at 15. His kicking to deep and his ability to take the contact or the chip over when he runs and (normally) get the ball back on our side is a valuable asset. He might make less breaks than the likes of Abendanon but he is so solid.
Tiesi is a star.
Tom Guest was super when he came on, I think that people have figured out Chris Robshaw this season and he isn't getting as much space as perhaps he did last year. But that is ok, he's a big boy and I'm sure he can deal with it and it creates space for others.
Quote:had Clegg managed to hold on to the perfect scoring pass.
It was far from a perfect pass, but Guest really did play well apart from that.
He gave us the "go forward" late on which enabled us to snatch a draw and almost win the game.
I was surprised the ref allowed virtually every Bath player to moan at him at every stoppage. They kept up an almost non-stop barrage of complaints about what Quins were doing. He kept replying to them. Why didn't he just tell them he was reffing the game and to shut up
