Harlequins
The Good & The Bad: Quins v Newcastle
By Battering Ram Winger
April 5 2010
So, another precious win (strokes mysterious gold ring, hisses at nearby hobbit scrum half). THE GOOD -
1). Relegation probably now out of the picture
With Worcester's lamentable showing against Sale, our beating our immediate rivals in the table and Leeds only getting a bonus point loss, we are probably OK. (How many points for safety?)
2). George Lowe again
This kid is dyn-a-mite! Seriously, he both carries and tackles way above his weight, has great footwork and great pace. He can only improve (unless the England coaching team get their hands on him, although that's unlikely given he's not 6 odd foot, sixteen stone with the spatial awareness of a blind crab)
3). The backs (when we got the ball moving)
When we moved the ball out wide and did things at speed, Newcastle couldn't live with us and we made good progress. Since our team is pretty much geared towards this style of play - "mobile" (i.e. too small) pack, fast backs, fly half standing flat, why we try and smash it up is a mystery to me.
4). Nick Evans (running and place kicking)
Excellent.
5). Defence against their (endless) pick and drive
Top notch - although it's lucky they have no faith in their backs because we had to commit a lot of bodies at times and they had some overlaps they completely ignored. But that's their problem.
THE BAD
1). Uselessness under pressure
All season long we have committed horrible, ugly mistakes at key points, be it a knock on, set piece foul up, wrong decision, whatever. We appear to be lacking a proper leader on the field - if Gomersall had still been with us (and not old), I would have brought him on at half time to marshal things and give some direction to proceedings because Care for one was having an utter stinker. At one point, having set himself for a box kick, he then decided not to, walked around a bit, looked left, threw a suicide pass that poor John Andress barely fielded and he had to punt vaguely up the pitch, allowing Newcastle to catch it and I think they scored from that attack. Maybe Care needs to have the England coached out of him.
2). Nick Evans (Passing and kicking from hand)
His passing was atrocious (although his first try came from the usual missed pass bouncing ball defenders out of alignment as they go to grab it situation) and his kicking (and indeed most of the kicking) was ugly.
3). Set piece
Scrums were a mess, lineout was a mess. Mind you, Newcastle have one hell of a pack and have caused problems for bigger and better packs than ours.
4). Tactics
As mentioned, if we have them on the ropes when we move it about, why did we start trying to maul and pick and drive, neither of which worked very well? In the second half we moved it around more, but still tried mauls from lineouts which were stopped dead.
5). The effect of relegation
The shambolic quality of this match and the one against Worcester has finally convinced me that relegation is a terrible thing for the spectacle of the game, producing as it does "gripping contests" or, as I now see it, poor teams paralysed by the fear that a mistake can lead to doom meaning they clench up and play dire rugby. But there you go.
Still, a win is a win, beat Leeds and we're cast iron safe, but we won't make the HEC spots, I suspect.
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Quote:The Prof
Cheers BRW, although I thought our pack did fantastically against their excellent front row
In defence they were excellent, but I thought we got suckered into taking them on at their own game and came off second best in an arm wrestle. When we got the ball moving and got the pack attacking from deep and then punching holes, rather than flop and fall (more commonly known in the Northern Hemisphere as pick and drive), we looked good.
But frankly, roll on next season, a full preparation from our new DOR and may Bloodgate stop befouling every damn newspaper report we see.
maybe it was just for the practise ??
NeV on the move is a joy
on on quins
Last season we would of said that was a very poor performance!
The squad is nowhere near the form of last season and although I'm happy with the win and in general our game plan for the match, it was still poor and we should not settle for it!
What is most frustrating is I know we can win, and win well! We did that last season!
Biglad.
There is no such thing as 'strong enough'
And this season, it's a feature of every match. How many really good positions have been lost as we wait for going on a minute for Danny to look around, loop it out and see it dropped somewhere in the centres?
I hope Mapletoft, in his new position, explains why slow rugby is losing rugby.
thought care had quite a good game actually. some nice little kicks down the blindside put them under pressure
It was just nice to win!
George Lowe, super player.
Nev's running.
Andress put in some good work.
Attacking play in general.
Borris hasn't got much better.
The Hog Roast
-ve
It wasn't pretty, NEv still trying chip kicks, that too often end up going straight in to the hands of a defender. Getting mullered at rucks and severely tested at scrum time.
Dropping the ball. (Ok it was a mud bath)
Mr Rose
Have you any idea about ruck laws sir? Interestingly also mentioned by both our coaches and theirs in the post match from the newspaper reports.
Roll on Saturday!
(apart from the RL game of course)
(Sorry I was combining posts on two threads there for a moment...)
The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George
But...we won!
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to bleat about it all over the internet"
