By Wyddy
May 10 2013

We’ve got a Semi on! 

So it’s Leicester again in a knock out match in the Aviva Premiership. This time for a place in the showpiece event at Big Stoop and the opportunity to defend our hard won title from last season. However Tigers are smarting and there’s more subplot to this game than 7 season of the West Wing. 

Lets start with the away side. Quins fans can rightly be relieved at making it this far, a couple of weeks ago after the ruinous slide of results against Exeter, Sarries and Gloucester left us reeling, and then the rotten cherry on the cake of dismay that was our defeat by Munster, it seemed all may have been lost. However a recovery of sterling if not biblical proportions has resulted in our LV= team winning the cup, our Premiership team getting back on track by stuttering past a limited Bath side and administering a bit of a tonking against a Wuss team with nothing to play for. Add to that last weekends uplifting victory over Northampton which showed flashes of our best play of this season, a 5 minute spell of pressure on Saints finally galvanising the support at the Stoop into a swell almost similar to the home semi final of last year. Quins eventually closing out what became an unnecessarily tight game, 22-19. 

However the small window of hope of a home semi final this year was extinguished by an accomplished deconstruction of London Irish by Leicester before they took their foot off the pedal at the end (similar to Quins) and then reasserted their dominance to close out their last game of the normal season at 32-20. Tigers have been in irrepressibly form of late, with only a rare slip up to Bath in the league stopping them from pushing Sarries even closer for the top spot. They also suffered heartache at the quarter final stages of the Heineken Cup, coming unstuck when confronted by a Jonny Wilkinson inspired Toulon. 

Leicester have long had the habit of running into form at the business end of the season, this is no fluke this is careful management by a canny club. Whilst they are fortunate to have their injury hit players from earlier in the season coming back into form at the right time, this is also a product of careful management of these players and of their squad as a whole. Tom Croft for example was not rushed back from injury, he was given time and has been all the better for it. Geordan Murphy has been used sparingly this season, allowing for both Taits development and the saving of Murphy for the big occasions (bar this one!). Their only blemishes on their teamsheet for this weekend will be the absence of stalwart prop, and Joe Marlers best buddy, Marcos Ayerza and Adam Thompstone. 

This will be a big miss for Tigers, as their replacements on that side of the scrum are not necessarily as well stacked as they are at tight head. Mulipola will step in, and he hasn’t had that great a season, he seems to get caught out a lot at the hit, and perhaps this is where Johnston can get the upper hand. His hit is fantastic, it’s just his binding that can draw the referees ire. Elsewhere in the front row, Leicester will field their Lions combination of Tom Youngs and Dan Cole. Youngs will be on top of the world after somehow swiping the Player of the Season award from other notable league players and Cole will be looking to put the hurt on his non Lion England team mate Joe Marler. 

The boiler room of the Leicester pack remains as it has done for most of the season, ably staffed by British Lion - Geoff Parling and Graham Kitchener (new England call up, Slater missing out this week through injury). Parlings line out prowess is well known, however there are still doubts over Tom Youngs line out throwing when his team is under pressure. As we have seen in the 6 Nations it can go to pot even when Parling is on the pitch providing the lighthouse. Kitchener will provide the ballast and additional grunt much the same as Olly Kohn does for Quins, it’s a very similar set up in the second rows. 

Moving on to Leicesters pride and joy, the selection this week shows they are going large in this semi, they will start with Croft, Salvi and Crane. A nice blend of speed, snaffling and bulk. Croft will be hoping to avoid a repeat of his last encounter with Nick Easter and prove his British Lions selection was the right call to make by Gatland over the unfortunate Chris Robshaw, who will also miss out this week. Crane and Salvi will have to be fast to the breakdown to compensate for Crofts playstyle which frequently takes him away from the grittier areas and sees him pop up in the back line. No problem there for Salvi, who is widely respected as one of the leading lights at 7, look out for Crane though, he is a large unit and in big games with serious pressure on he’s been seen to gas. Crane has however added a sidestep to his running game that was never there before, this enables him to get that gainline break, now it may only be 1 or 2 yards but it keeps the momentum going. Let’s also be aware of just how much crash ball is run through Crane, it’s going to be down to Easter and co to cut this approach, if he and Robson can hold up Crane in a couple of choke tackles, this could deter that approach from Leicester. 

The tried and trusted half back pairings of both sides will take the field once again. For Leicester, yet another Lion in Ben Youngs will partner Toby Flood to direct operations again for Tigers. What more can be said about this combination, both are in good form, however the intrigue here comes in the conflict between Youngs and Danny Care, who many thought would also tour with the Lions. Youngs will be out to prove that whilst he has won the battle for the No9 England shirt as it stands, that he is also the deserving tourist as well. Ironically Youngs will be eyeball to eyeball with the player most likely to replace him on the Lions tour. Not the time to pick up an injury or get outplayed... 

Another resumption of old rivalries will be in the centres where the combination of Tuilagi and Allen will again face George Lowe... however this time he will be ably assisted by Tom Casson instead of Turner-Hall (has he been caught in flagrante with someone he shouldn’t?!?). We have seen Tuilagi has been hesitant in the past facing up to Lowe, in the final last year the pressure seemed to get to him so much that forward passes started to be coughed up and little to no gains were made. We can be sure that Cockerill will have addressed that point this time round with one of his most potent weapons. He will also be pinning a lot of hope on Allen staying fit for the game, Tigers are a much different prospect without Allen to organise the defence. He pulls things together and in recent games where he has gone off, Leicester have lost shape and opposition sides have been able to make gains. 

On the wings in the absence of Thompstone, Tigers will line up with Morris and Goneva. Neither of which strike as much fear into opposition defences as free scoring Thompstone, but Morris is slowly finding his groove and the beginnings of a beneficial relationship with Tait are starting to become apparent. Speaking of which Tait resumes his role at 15 in the absence of Geordan Murphy who will not be taking the field in what would have been his last game before retirement. Welford Road is sure to rise as one, Tigers and Quins fans to salute a great ambassador for the game, one of the most skilled imports to hit these shores. 

Needless to say the Leicester bench is traditionally strong and packed with internationals of the quality of Castrogiovanni who will also be heading off at the end of their season and Mafi who scored in the final last year. 

Quins will be playing the same team that they brought to the final last year with only 2 changes. The aforementioned Jordan Turner-Hall being left out in favour of Tom Casson, and Chris Robshaw still not having shaken off the knock he picked up at Worcester. In Robshaws absence young tyro and LV= Cup winning captain Luke Wallace will fill in. Wallace had been widely predicted to have a shout with being selected in the England squad to travel to Argentina, however on this occasion has missed out. If there aren’t some club Samaritans about at the Stoop maybe it’s time to invest in them to cope with the series of disappointments our players are suffering on a national level! 

However the chance for him to use that experience and prove his mettle have come around very quickly, he will be up against a master of the arts at No7 in Julian Salvi, and their scrap at the breakdown will have a huge impact on how this game rolls. Last week it was good to see Quins bodies finally making it to the breakdown in time to have effective retention of quick ball and this will be essential against the mobile and awkward Salvi. 

Up front, the Quins pack have been on an upward curve in recent weeks, particularly Joe Marler who seems to have rediscovered some of his bustling self in the loose. On Quins best days, Marler is one of the most utilised ball carriers, last weekend he was busting holes in a big Northampton pack. O’Shea will need him and Easter at their brutal best in order to keep the momentum going so that Care can provide the backs with the sort of ball they can attack a scrambling Leicester defence with. 

Nick Evans fresh from the birth this week of his son (Mini-Snap), has been another who showed signs of his return to form against Northampton, some of the effortless grace he brings to the game was on show as he appeared to conjure time on the ball. He also took his fair share of licks as well, as Burrell came angling down his channel on more than one occasion. However he has come through the knocks and takes his place at 10 with young pretender, Ben Botice still snapping at his heels from the bench. 

Joe Gray is recalled to the side in place of Rob Buchanan, who this week celebrated his England call up for Argentina. Gray obviously has some ground to make up with the England management as before his injury prior to the 6 Nations he was in pole position to challenge Hartley for the No2 shirt. Now however he has seen Tom Youngs (Player of the Season – cough), Rob Hawkins and now his own teammate Buchanan steam past him, and he is also in danger of losing his first team place to Buchanan. O’Shea has gone for the greater accuracy of Gray at lineout time than the more straightforward charms of his colleague. 

There have been big noises made about this game from all manner of corners, to the previous game history where Quins have made injury weakened Tigers teams pay both at Welford and the Stoop, to the 6 Lions selected from Leicesters ranks to the 0 selected from Quins. A place in the final at stake, season finality for the loser. 

Add to that Crofts injury coming from a tackle by Nick Easter, Tuilagi not firing against Quins, direct competitors for Lions jerseys coming up against each other. The send offs of Castrogiovanni and Murphy for Tigers and the end of the road tour for messr Johnston of Quins and this will be a humdinger. 

For me Quins will have to be at their best to hold off what is sure to be a rabid Tigers side backed by a vociferous Welford Road. Above all the team with the best discipline will be in pole position to squeak this game home in the narrow confines of this great ground. If Quins fail to match up to the physical pressure of Leicester up front they will find it nigh on impossible to win on the back foot. Weather the early storm, pin them back, quieten the ground then work on opening up channels through committed sure footed running lines. 

Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well at least it’s not Wayne Barnes again...! 

Quins by 3pts 

COME ON YOU QUINS!!!!!!