By Quinten Poulsen
February 18 2011

For the first time in almost 3 months Harlequins start a home game of rugby at 3pm on a Saturday with the visit of the Sale Sharks. This game is also the final home fixture with Mark Evans in charge before he leaves for pastures new, although in his new career of Sports Consultancy he already has Quins as a client and will presumably find it hard to miss many future home games.

I've yet to watch the highlights of last week's game away at Exeter, but by all accounts Quins played poorly and were brought back to earth with an ignominious thud as the 9 game winning streak came to an end. The middle of the Premiership table is fairly congested and the result saw Quins drop from 4^th to 7^th, which means anything other than a win against Sale will not only be desperately disappointing, but will also make the possibility of a top 4 finish far harder than it should be.

Sale have continued to struggle following Mike Brewer's sacking in December, winning 3 from 8, although one of the victories was an impressive showing against Saracens. They have picked a pretty strong side, and having won 3 out of 4 games against Quins last season The Stoop shouldn't hold much fear for them. They have a big belligerent pack with plenty of ball carriers, including Andrew Sheridan ( back from the last minute injury whilst with England prior to the Italian game last weekend) and Sisa Koyamaibole – 2 of the biggest brick outhouses playing in the league. Koyamaibole makes up an impressive back row with James Gaskell and Carl Fearns. Fearns is perhaps one of the most under-appreciated young English prospects outside of Sale, and not only did he keep our own Chris York out of the England U20 side a couple of seasons ago but he has also become a first choice player at his club and is able to play in all 3 back row positions.

Amongst the backs Sale have a couple of hot prospects in the South African born Irishman, Kyle Tonetti, and the Englishman Tom Brady. Brady seems to be a natural try scorer, and 7 to his name already is quite a feat in a team that has struggled for most of the season; not only that but he has been injured for the last 3 ½ months! Former Quin Chris Bell plays outside Tonetti in the centre, with the always dangerous Charlie Hodgson pulling the strings at 10.

Harlequins' Nick Evans misses the game so Rory Clegg starts his first league game since last season. Danny Care is thankfully back to partner him having been released by England as Quins have a bit of a scrum half crisis with Karl Dickson out for several weeks. The outside backs have plenty of experience between them and are more or less first choice. Captain Chris Robshaw starts at Number 8, but he has very limited experience in this position and so doubts remain about the balance of the back row.

In order to win Quins will have to be an awful lot better than last weekend, and it will be interesting to see how the confidence is, particularly with the loss of Nev. That's not to demean Clegg at all; he is a fine player, but Evans has been in brilliant form this season and has that touch of class that few players attain. If Sale are 'up' for this game, and can hurt Quins early on then this could be a difficult game to watch as a home supporter. On the other hand, if Harlequins come out of the tunnel and play with a ferocity and passion that last week's humiliation demands, and avoid the unforced errors that plagued them last season and for some of this, then they should get back to winning ways. Put simply, playing at home against a team well below them in the league should translate into a bankable win. However, I suspect that Quins self-belief could be rattled and am not entirely convinced about Robshaw at 8. Hopefully these fears will prove unfounded and we can all breathe a sigh of relied that Exeter was a blip. Fingers crossed.

One final note – good luck Evs, and thank you very much!