Harlequins vs Worcester - Match report

I should have posted this here sooner (migraine yesterday afternoon and today ), but here's my report from the Press Bench at the Stoop on Saturday:

http://v2journal.com/quins-vs-worcester-warriors.html

Cheers for the match report Kiwi.

Worcesters defence was excellent, and they really pressured us for the whole 80.

We on the other hand tried playing far too much in the wrong areas of the pitch and went wide too often without making ground.

We really lacked any kind of impact in the forwards bar the front three who I thought were all outstanding in the loose. But without Guest, Robshaw, York or Mauri as an option to crash the ball up we made very few metres in the tight.

Marler disproved a few myths about his set piece skills on Sat, he looked a lot better then the much hyped Wood or even Stevens.

Easter again was huge for us.

Evans probably had his worst game of the season from a tactical point of view, some poor kicks and sloppy passing were unexpected from him, but then everyone is allowed a bad day at the office!

Lowe looked like he'd never been out, maybe doesn't have the pace of Hopper but his all round game is top notch and his defence is very aggressive.

Casson is an impressive 12, still young and makes a few mistakes but does offer a lot. The competition between him and JTH shuld be interesting in the future.

Williams and Monye on the wings don't creat enough, Williams has the higest work rate of any winger around but unfortunately Monye seems to be less and less of a threat both the Worcester wingers looked far more dangerous and I'd like to see one of Smith or Stegmann partner Williams next week. Brown also links a lot better on the counters with both of the young wingers.

Well done to Wuss for such a fight, we really needed it and it's great to see Quins win through a forward dominated gameplan. Oh how things have changed!

yappysnap wrote:Cheers for the match report Kiwi.

Worcesters defence was excellent, and they really pressured us for the whole 80.

We on the other hand tried playing far too much in the wrong areas of the pitch and went wide too often without making ground.

We really lacked any kind of impact in the forwards bar the front three who I thought were all outstanding in the loose. But without Guest, Robshaw, York or Mauri as an option to crash the ball up we made very few metres in the tight.

Marler disproved a few myths about his set piece skills on Sat, he looked a lot better then the much hyped Wood or even Stevens.

Easter again was huge for us.

Evans probably had his worst game of the season from a tactical point of view, some poor kicks and sloppy passing were unexpected from him, but then everyone is allowed a bad day at the office!

Lowe looked like he'd never been out, maybe doesn't have the pace of Hopper but his all round game is top notch and his defence is very aggressive.

Casson is an impressive 12, still young and makes a few mistakes but does offer a lot. The competition between him and JTH shuld be interesting in the future.

Williams and Monye on the wings don't creat enough, Williams has the higest work rate of any winger around but unfortunately Monye seems to be less and less of a threat both the Worcester wingers looked far more dangerous and I'd like to see one of Smith or Stegmann partner Williams next week. Brown also links a lot better on the counters with both of the young wingers.

Well done to Wuss for such a fight, we really needed it and it's great to see Quins win through a forward dominated gameplan. Oh how things have changed!

Some good comments there Yappy. The Quins wingers did need to go in looking for work, as in the conditions the ball just wasn't making it out to them. I'd like to see Quins putting a bit more depth into their backline attacks, when I've seen them play this season they've been almost Welsh 2009/10 in terms of lateral play.

Yes it's very left to right and if the forwards don't carry the ball up and we don't have JTH then it becomes a real issue.

Hopefully as the ground firms up and we get a few backrow players back we'll get a bit more direct.

Will you be doing another report for this weekends match?

Marler did have a huge game, and was impressed with Wallace, even though he was playing at 6.

Has Rowntree worked wonders with Marler??! Or was it a one-off, lucky performance?

Thought Lowe was fantastic too. Constantly performs well on defence, very impressive. Saxons possibly?

yappysnap wrote:Yes it's very left to right and if the forwards don't carry the ball up and we don't have JTH then it becomes a real issue.

Hopefully as the ground firms up and we get a few backrow players back we'll get a bit more direct.

Will you be doing another report for this weekends match?

Fair points, I don't think JTH has played any of the games I've been to. At the after match on Saturday Conor O'Shea said that they could have played JTH, but as he only rejoined the squad on Thursday O'Shea preferred keeping the inside back group that had been training together.

Quins are away to Gloucs on Saturday so I won't be going - I should be doing all the remaining home games this season though. I thought about applying for a pass for the U20 6N match at the Stoop this Friday, but pay-day drinks are calling instead

Ah I can understand you not wanting to travel to deepest darkest Gloucester!

Bluestone, Marler has been getting better in the scrums all season and he's never been bad, it's just a mix of lazy stereotyping and the fact Johnstone till the last few games has been very poor on his side of the scrum.

Wallace had a good game, he is a machine at stopping mauls before they start, Worcester could work nothing off their lineouts.

Kiwi could you not go for drinks before and then pop to the game, i'm sure the match report wouldn't be too affected...

Thanks for the info Yappy. I haven't been a victim of lazy stereotyping personally- whenever I've seen him play it's his scrummaging that has let him down considerably. This weekend though, I was really impressed, so glad his performances have altered my perception.

Wallace is impressive, though I think 7 is his position. Assuming he was 6 out of necessity this weekend.

Sorry Bluestone, I didn't mean yourself but I just get the feeling that some people see what he's like in the loose and his age and just assume he'll be rubbish in the scrum. He has got a lot better, a lot of issues have been with binding long on the opposition (not really sure what this means?).

Wallace usually always plays 7, I think we had planned on having Guest at 6 but he pulled out just before the game started and Wallace had to switch. We'd usually have Wallace partner Robshaw.Fa'Asavalu or Guest from 7.

What's also exciting is that when we're playing a fluid running game he's really ggod at linking, finding space and offloading well. Something few Eng backrow players seem to do.

As you could tell I could go on about the guy.

no worries Yappy, I understand that he does get a lot of flak, but he's really impressing me lately. Considering his age especially, he has a great future.

Similarly to you, I could talk about Wallace no end! In fact, any up and coming opensides I could find myself chatting about for bloomin' ages.

He's a very good link man, and great at the breakdown too. Good height for a traditional 7. It was recently that him and Easter combined on that lovely run down the touchline resulting in a try wasn't it? Some great handling and running angles there.

I thought Lowe was seriously quick in getting back and tackling benjamin before his try (which I saw back and thought it was a double movement). But still, catching Benjamin in full flight was immense.

You are right Yappy - I thought that Monye looked inefectual in the game. And I was a little dissapointed with Tom Williams (who's looked really sharp in the previous games). I would like to see Seb or Sam brought back in to partner Tom in the next match. Quins looked really good with the 2 youngsters at the start of the season.

Easter had a good number of touches and looks hungry for his England spot. I hope that Guest isnt seriously injured as I would really like him to get more game time.

Yep that was just last week against London Irish, was a very tasty bit of play between the forwards! I hope he carries on progressing like he is at the moment as if he does he should definitely be looked at for the summer tour to SA.

Yes my reaction was double movement too, it's a catch 22 situation, tackler has to release or they're pinged but they do and the player gets back up and scores!

Yea i'd like to se either of them chosen, both are fairly equal and both work a lot harder then Monye, which is a shame as Ugo does bring a lot and is a bit of a legend at the Stoop.

Guest looked very sharp against LI, can't remember what happened to him this weekend, flu maybe?

It looked like Lowe fell off the tackle after bringing him down so Benjamin regained his feet enough to get over the line. It is an awkward situation especially if the ref is trying to catch up with play and so can't instruct. I thought a call of double movement would have been harsh, especially with some of the tries that have been allowed this season (Fofana did the same thing with a player hanging off him and the ref wouldn't even review the incident in the HEC).

Hi Sam, thats true. Its just, I thought the rule was also if the ball is on the ground that the ball carrier has to let go of the ball and pick it up again in order to continue.

Benjamin was tackled, flat on his front with ball tucked under arm. He's not held, and goes again - comes up short again flat on belly with the ball making contact with the ground then he reaches for the line and scores.

I've no problem with the grounding, and it was a great break in the first place. The only reason I watched it back was that I missed it while I was there as was standing in the beer line.

On a different note - Benjamin and Garvey looked really sharp.
Any news on Garveys injury, looks like he took a real clattering from Easter.

Looks good for your boys Sam, Benjamin had a stormer or a game in attack and defence. I think he will be great at Tigers if yu do sign him.

I thought the rule was also if the ball is on the ground that the ball carrier has to let go of the ball and pick it up again in order to continue

I thought as long as he fully regained his feet he was fine to play on. If you are held then you must release the ball but if you are not held you are fine as long as you get back to your feet, no crawling to the try line.

I think Benjamin will hit in well at Tigers, coming off the wing looking for work in defence and attack with that pace and power could lead to him being a fan favourite. If he is combined with Thompson from LI then there really could be some fireworks outwide for Tigers next season (would make a nice change).

Good to win ugly games, that's what wins Championships, and we know that on a good day we can win prettily as well. Well fought Worcester, Benjamin and Garvey are very good wingers. But all in all I take a lot of positives from that. Nice to have competition in the centres and back-row and the wingers too as I think Steggman and Smith are good and offer different things to Williams and Monye (who sounded poor this week but we know he can be very dangerous as a power winger). Hopefully, losing dip in the season is over and we can build some momentum up

We're going to need the pack at it's toughest this weekend away at Gloucester. If we can get pressure on their forwards then maybe we can sneak a win?

The defence out wide has to be far better as well, we let the Wuss wingers play far too much.