Harlequins vs Exeter Chiefs

QUINS:
15 MIKE BROWN
14 SEB STEGMANN
13 GEORGE LOWE
12 JORDAN TURNER-HALL
11 SAM SMITH
10 NICK EVANS
9 KARL DICKSON
1 JOE MARLER
2 CHRIS BROOKER
3 JAMES JOHNSTON
4 OLLIE KOHN
5 GEORGE ROBSON
6 CHRIS ROBSHAW
7 LUKE WALLACE
8 NICK EASTER

THE BENCH
16 JOE GRAY "FR"
17 KYLE SINCKLER "FR"
18 TIM FAIRBROTHER "FR"
19 TOMAS VALLEJOS
20 MAURIE FA'ASAVALU
21 RICHARD BOLT
22 RORY CLEGG
23 MATT HOPPER

:
15 Luke Arscott
14 Bryan Rennie
13 Sireli Naqelevuki
12 Jason Shoemark
11 Matt Jess
10 Ignacio Mieres
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Chris Whitehead
3 John Andress
4 Tom Hayes (capt)
5 James Hanks
6 Tom Johnson
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Richard Baxter

Subs:
16 Neil Clark
17 Ben Moon
18 Hoani Tui
19 Chris Bentley
20 Ben White
21 Kevin Barrett
22 Gareth Steenson
23 Josh Tatupu

I've embedded a link to this on the round 7 thread As

Bryan Rennie on the wing? Didn't think he was that quick.

Sorry ASBO, but I think Quins will win this one, although Johnson against Robshaw is one for the England selectors to watch closely.

Ozzy3213 wrote:I've embedded a link to this on the round 7 thread As

Nice one, Pete

"although Johnson against Robshaw is one for the England selectors to watch closely"

Definately...

funnyExiledScot wrote:Bryan Rennie on the wing? Didn't think he was that quick.

Sorry ASBO, but I think Quins will win this one, although Johnson against Robshaw is one for the England selectors to watch closely.

fES, BR isn't that quick, but he's solid and I expect that he'll be asked to come in off his wing a fair amount in attack, and he'll be charged with not missing first up tackles in defence, otherwise we're feiced cos both Stegmann and Smith can shift

Think I agree with you on the result, and in fact, with pie-boy Andress starting at tighthead, I'm even more pessimistic than before the teams were announced! Strong forward-oriented game is the only way to take this Quins team on for me

I'm not sure the winning margin will be quite as big as last year, but you just can't see past Quins on current form winning this.

The young Quns’ wingers are scoring bag of tries at the moment. Seb Stegmann 4 tries in the last three games and Sam Smith 3 tries in his last 5 league games.

The Quins’ backrow has a nice balance to it, you’ve got Robshaw as the grafter and the leader, Easter as a ball carrier and Wallace as a scavenger.

The battle of the backrows is the bit I'm really looking forward to, arguably it will be the closest contest between all the different units

Easter needs a massive game now he's back, i'd be interested to have seen if he was started had Guest/York been fit.

I predict a tight contest with one Quins try the difference. Robshaw, Robson and Wallace to win it for us.

Love the look of the Quins backline has everything you need in your backs and the grand puppeteer at 10.

Congrats Quins, LBP for the Chiefs:

Harlequins (9) 19
Tries: Brown, Cons: Evans, Pens: Evans 4
Exeter (0) 13
Tries: Rennie, Cons: Mieres, Pens: Mieres 2

yappysnap wrote:Easter needs a massive game now he's back, i'd be interested to have seen if he was started had Guest/York been fit.

I predict a tight contest with one Quins try the difference. Robshaw, Robson and Wallace to win it for us.

Love the look of the Quins backline has everything you need in your backs and the grand puppeteer at 10.

Pretty much bang on there. Sounds like a late Brown try won it for Quins. These are exactly the games they were losing last year.

I havent seen the highlights yet - but was there in the South stand.

It looked to me that Easter was a bit off the pace. I agree with yappy - I am not so sure that he would have started if York was fit. Hopefully its just a few cobwebs as it would be good to get Nick rolling for the H-Cup.

Quins are really going to have to up the tempo for Bath next week.

On the plus. That was a real grafting win for them, they are the kind of games that will keep the players grounded and not let them get carried away with the hype.

Nic Evans was outstanding again, and when our young wings got a bit of space they looked dangerous - credit to Chiefs for shutting them down quickly. Exeter were putting the squeeze on in the scrum it seemed, and the ref was talking to Marler a lot (binding infringements I think) but from where I was sitting it looked as if Joe was a little hard done by.

Only caught the highlights but from what I saw of Easter he looked lost out there. That hand off on him and subsequent romp through by the Chiefs was not his best moment.

Commentator said something about the Cheifs suffering from 2nd Season Syndrome?

No idea what he meant... I thought the Chiefs were unlucky not to win this one.

Metal Tiger wrote:Only caught the highlights but from what I saw of Easter he looked lost out there. That hand off on him and subsequent romp through by the Chiefs was not his best moment.

Commentator said something about the Cheifs suffering from 2nd Season Syndrome?

No idea what he meant... I thought the Chiefs were unlucky not to win this one.

That was indeed a curious comment, Metal Tiger, can only hope he's got that badly wrong

Chiefs are still solid mid table. They are having some close games - I think the commentator must have gottent that wrong. There is no 2nd season syndrome in Exeter - not yet, and hopefully wont be. Chiefs could have easily won that game against Quins, and to pick up a loosing bonus on away games is no small thing either.

Surely the relegation battle will be between Worcester and Newcastle. We will have to see. Christmas time seems to normally be the time when a teams form reverses, either for better or worse.

If anything, the Chiefs look to be doing better this season than they did last season. They've had the advantage of being less affected by RWC then some, but even though they are less of a surprise than they were last season they are just as hard to play against.

I can't see them being dragged into a relegation scrap this year, but then to be honest I don't think there'll be one; Newcastle just look too vulnerable. Chiefs should be in the mix for HEC places at the end of the season, but I am not sure I agree with Conor O'Shea when he says he expects them to be pushing for a Top 4 slot - not quite enough in attack. Which said, Naqelevuki is an excellent player, they are already dangerous on the break, and once Camacho is integrated into the team they could spring some real surprises.

Poorfour, great review on the Quins unoffy site (assuming that you are the same poster)

Wish i shared your optimism about where we'll finish. Agree that well avoid relegation, and I know that it's only early season, but with Tigers and Quins beneath us, and unlikely to stay there for ever, I think we'll miss out on an HC place

Watched the highlights and read a few match reports and it does seem the lads thought they wouldn't need to do much to win.

Luckily though and it's the real difference between this season and the past. When we dropped behind and Ex tried to put the squeeze on us we picked up a gear and did what needed doing.

Congrats to the Cheifs for a tough ol' game!

The encouraging thing for Quins (and 100, I am the same poster - glad you enjoyed the report) was that although they weren't on sparkling form for much of the match, the way they responded to going behind was stunning: up the tempo, cut out the breakdown altogether, march down the field, 10 points in 3 minutes, no messing.

They can't do that for 80 minutes a game, but if they have the ability to turn it on like that in the locker, they will always be confident of being able to force a result.

Chiefs look to me to be a season or two away from having that ability - but they can already make life hard enough for anyone that it only takes a slight lapse in concentration for them to cause an upset.

Enjoyed the battle between Wallace and Scays - Wallace seemed to tackle everything that moved, but felt that Scays had the better of snaffling on the deck. Ref seemed clueless about the gate tho, both sides disadvantaged by general lax interpretation

Some really poor reffing this weekend, i don't know if we just had the kess experienced refd out or what but a few games were really badly handled.

Not sure about the Bath game now, we need to up the tempo in the scrum and really pressure their pack, really need Easter to pull his finger out, i was expecting a big game against cheifs but it just didn't happen.

maybe with the back injuries and England 'coaching' he's just taking a while to get back up to speed.

You had wavey Davey refereeing didn't you?

Yup!

We all get very nervous at the MadStad when we see his name down to ref us. Makes some curious decisions at times and often seems to lose control of the game.