Harlequins 2013/14 Season Discussion Thread

[yappysnap]

First topic message reminder :

So a few other teams had their own threads last season, it seemed to work well and seeing as it's far easier to steal someone else's idea then think up your own...

WELCOME TO THE HARLEQUINS 2013/14 SEASON DISCUSSION THREAD!

The Squad for 13/14:
Director of Rugby Conor O'Shea
Head Coach John Kingston
First Team Coach Tony Diprose
Assistant First Team Coach Mark Mapletoft
Assistant First Team Coach Collin Osborne

Hooker
Joe Gray
Rob Buchanan
Dave Ward

Loosehead Prop:
Joe Marler
Mark Lambert
Nick Mayhew
Daryl Marfo

Tighthead Prop
Paul Doran Jones
Will Collier
Kyle Sinckler  

Lock
George Robson   
Charlie Matthews
George Merrick
Sam Twomey  

Blindside
Maurie Fa'asavalu
Joe Trayfoot  

Openside
Chris Robshaw
Luke Wallace

Number 8
Nick Easter
Tom Guest
Jack Clifford

Scrum Half
Danny Care
Karl Dickson

Fly Half
Nick Evans  
Ben Botica
Louis Grimoldby

Inside Centre
Jordan Turner-Hall  
Tom Casson  
Harry Sloan

Outside Centre
George Lowe
Matt Hopper
Charlie Walker

Wing
Ugo Monye
Tom Williams
Sam Smith
Miles Mantella


Fullback
Mike Brown
Ross Chisholm
Ollie Lindsay-Hague

Fixtures:

Harlequins are pleased to confirm an exciting and challenging opening for the 2013-14 Aviva Premiership season.
 
The Londoners kick-off the new season against local rivals London Wasps at Twickenham Stadium during the London Double Header on 7th September, kick-off 4.30pm (Live on BT Sport).

2013 Aviva Premiership finalists, Northampton Saints are the visitors for the first home game at The Twickenham Stoop on Friday 13th September, kick-off 7:45pm (Live on BT Sport).

The second home game welcomes Heineken Cup semi-finalists Saracens on 28th September, kick-off 3.15pm (Live on BT Sport).

Exeter Chiefs will be the visitors to Twickenham Stadium for the sixth Big Game on Saturday 28th December. More information about Big Game 6 will be provided in coming months.

The Londoners will open their Heineken Cup campaign over the weekend of the 11th/12th/13th October, while the defence of the LV= Cup will begin during the second weekend of November. Fixture dates and times are expected by ERC and Premiership rugby later this month.

The only way to guarantee your place at all of the regular season home fixtures is by becoming a Member. Information on the innovative Membership scheme and how to become a Member is available by clicking here or by calling 0208 744 4477.

"There is no such thing as an easy match in the Aviva Premiership and there is no doubt that our opening fixtures are very demanding," said Conor O'Shea, Harlequins Director of Rugby.

"Once again we will be competing in three great competitions against top class opposition from this country and Europe. Our Premiership campaign gets underway with the London Double Header against Wasps on 7th September and is followed during that month with tough home matches with Northampton Saints and Saracens as well as a trip to Sixways to play against Dean Ryan's Worcester.

"Given the quality of the opposition, we hope that our supporters will be looking forward to returning to The Stoop to get behind their team as we set out on the marathon that is the Premiership with all its related ups and downs."

Tickets for the new season's home games will go on sale on Monday 15th July. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 0208 410 6000
Harlequins Fixtures
Please note fixtures after Round 8 are subject to change

Round 1
Saturday September 7: London Wasps v Harlequins (4.30pm, Twickenham Stadium, BT Sport)

Round 2
Friday September 13:Harlequins v Northampton Saints (7.45pm BT Sport)

Round3
Friday September 21: Worcester Warriors v Harlequins (7.45pm BT Sport)

Round 4
Saturday September 28: Harlequins v Saracens (3.15pm BT Sport)

Round 5
Saturday October 5: London Irish v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Heineken Cup
Fri/Sat/Sun October 11/12/13 Heineken Cup

Fri/Sat/Sun October 18/19/20 Heineken Cup

Round 6
Saturday October 26: Harlequins v Sale Sharks (3.00pm)

Round 7
Saturday November 2: Leicester Tigers v Harlequins (5.30pm BT Sport)

LV= Cup
Fri/Sat/Sun November 9 LV= Cup

Fri/Sat/Sun November 16 LV= Cup

Round 8
Saturday November 23: Harlequins v Gloucester Rugby (3.00pm)

Round 9
Sunday December 1: Newcastle Falcons v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Heineken Cup
Fri/Sat/Sun Dec 6/7/8 Heineken Cup

Fri/Sat/Sun Dec 13/14/15Heineken Cup

Round 10
Saturday December 21st: Bath Rugby v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Round 11
Sat December 28: BIG GAME 6 Harlequins v Exeter Chiefs (3.00pm)

Round 12
Saturday January 4: Northampton Saints v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Heineken Cup
Fri/Sat/Sun January 10/11/12 Heineken Cup
Fri/Sat/ Sun January 17/18/19 Heineken Cup

LV= Cup
Fri/Sat/Sun Jan 24/25/26 LV= Cup
Fri/Sat/Sun Jan 31 Feb 1 /2 LV= Cup

Round 13
Saturday February 8: Harlequins v London Wasps (3.00pm)

Round 14
Saturday February 15: Harlequins v Newcastle Falcons (3.00pm)

Round 15
Saturday February 22: Gloucester Rugby v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Round 16
Saturday March 1: Harlequins v Worcester Warriors (3.00pm)

Round 17
Saturday March 22: Saracens v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Round 18
Saturday March 29: Harlequins v London Irish (3.00pm)

Round 19
Friday April 11: Sale Sharks v Harlequins (7.45pm)

Round 20
Saturday April 19: Harlequins v Leicester Tigers (3.00pm)

Round 21
Saturday May 3: Exeter Chiefs v Harlequins (3.00pm)

Round 22
Saturday May 10: Harlequins v Bath Rugby (3.00pm)

Whether you're a Quins fan or not please feel free to discuss, argue, banter and bicker below. And  to 2014's Aviva Prem Champs!!    

COYQ's!!!!

[whocares]

Good win for Quins. Sexton is rubbish now he has to play every  week. What a joke the Crapo league is.

Not sure what you on about but Sexton only started 8 times in the T14. Blame his honeymoon and the Lions for his dip of form.

[Toast]

Rubbish. Like all irish players he can't play a more than two games in a row.

[stub]

Well done Quins - good solid win. Good to see.

[lostinwales]

Its not just Sexton. I have not seen the game but this quote on the BBC amused me

Walker, ... handed-off Wales blind-side Dan Lydiate and showed good pace to race over.

[yappysnap]

Yea Lydiates stats are shocking, 4 tackles all game and 2 missed. Wallace and Robshaw both blew him out of the water.

[ChequeredJersey]

"Shocker"

[ChequeredJersey]

Hope that conditions allow for an attacking game vs Bath, looking forward to that! Our pack seems to be getting tougher and that's what we need

[Toast]

Matthews in the second row has made a huge difference. All the front five have been excellent at the set piece over the past two weekends.

[The Saint]

Seems Lydiate is suffering from form dips after all the reoccurring injuries. The ankle that was operated on seems to be wrapped up 24/7. It must be frustrating for him. He's certainly down the pecking order in Wales, just wish the management wouldn't have favourites now and again.

[ChequeredJersey]

He basically got shoved straight in the 15 from out of te squad having not played in a while and struggling with injuries after getting injured on a Lions tour he probably wasn't fit for. Of course he isn't playing his best

[yappysnap]

So not a bad two weeks for Quins. The returning players have done a lot for the team mechanics and now the old hands are standing up and leading by example.

Agree with Toast that Matthews is making a big difference in the pack, bringing that extra mass in the contact area that we haven't had since Kohn left. He isn't flashy in anyway but he does exactly what we need. Walker looks like a gem and I wouldn't want him dropping out of the 23 now. In fact to be honest I'd take him on one wing and Williams on the other with Sam Smith at 23 for the remainder of the season. Next season is going to be tough trying to keep Smith, Walker, Williams, Chisholm AND Ollie Lindsay-Hague all happy!

[ChequeredJersey]

We could play Walker at 13?

[yappysnap]

Yea he did play there for the England age grades didn't he? Can't be any smaller physically then Hopper and his tackling's looked solid enough so far. Earlier this season I think he did come off the bench at 13 with Hopper at 12 as well. A Walker/Molenar midfield has a lot of potential.

[yappysnap]

Oh and Easter's picked up the Gatorade game changer award for November for the display against Tiggers. Always good for the best 8 in England to actually get some recognition (ironically at 4 that day).

[thomh]

Molenar has looked inexplicably good for someone who couldn't get a game elsewhere, though I suppose Gloucester do have the current England 12. What happens to Turner-Hall going forward?

[propdavid_london]

Thomh - Its great, JTH is going to really have to work for his shirt. Something we've been missing for some time.
Quins needs that type of crash ball player in the centres to suck in defenders and make gaps elsewhere. Something we were lacking with Casson and Hopper.
Competition can only be good for the squad.

[propdavid_london]

I did think that PDJ was poor again - giving away a silly penalty!

[yappysnap]

Yea PDJ just doesn't seem to be working at the moment, still there's plenty more rugby for him to turn it around.

[Poorfour]

I don't think it's time to judge PDJ yet. He's been out with injury most of the season and is only just back. He needs a run of 8 or 9 games to settle before we can really see how he's doing. Compare that with Collier who has played most of the games but only really started to come into his own against Racing.

[yappysnap]

True Collier has looked poor for a long time and is now slowly coming good. PDJ just had more rep before he came along and wasn't exactly a noob

[ChequeredJersey]

Team Up
Posted by: Mr Deltoid (IP Logged)
Date: 20 December, 2013 12:00

15. Mike Brown
14. Charlie Walker
13. Matt Hopper
12. Tim Molenaar
11. Sam Smith
10. Nick Evans
9. Karl Dickson

1. Joe Marler
2. Dave Ward
3. Paul Doran Jones
4. Charlie Matthews
5. George Robson
6. Luke Wallace
7. Chris Robshaw (C)
8. Nick Easter

16. Max Crumpton
17. Mark Lambert
18. Kyle Sinckler
19. Nick Kennedy
20. Tom Guest
21. Sam Stuart
22. Ben Botica
23. Ollie Lindsay-Hague



Harlequins has announced the team to play Bath Rugby in Round 10 of the Aviva Premiership tomorrow at The Rec, kick-off 3:00pm.
There are just two changes to the starting line-up which beat Racing Metro in the Heineken Cup last week. Paul Doran Jones and Karl Dickson start at tighthead prop and scrum-half respectively, in place of Will Collier and Danny Care who picked up knocks last week.

Among the replacements, Max Crumpton is named. Crumpton, a former England U20 hooker, has arrived from Saracens due to injury to three of the four hookers at Harlequins. Tom Guest returns from injury and is joined by Sam Stuart.

[yappysnap]

Is Max Crumpton the fairly tubby Sarries hooker who was in that help for heroes game? If he is then he has a surprising burst of pace and is just like another Dave Ward.

Great looking side, Bath may have too much for us at hone but I think we'll comfortably get the losing bp and make it tough for them.

[ChequeredJersey]

I think we'll win if PDJ can play anything better than Poopie

[beshocked]

Yappysnap you are getting mixed up with Scott Spurling.

I have never seen Max Crumpton play so can't tell you what he is like unfortunately.

[Toast]

He looked pretty sharpe at U20's level. Not as good as Cowan-Dickie but a strong 2nd choice.
Think Gray is out for the season now too.

[ChequeredJersey]

Bugger.

[yappysnap]

Cheers B   

[sirtidychris]

Bath: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10, George Ford, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Carl Fearns, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Matt Garvey, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Paul James

Replacements: 16 Eusebio Guinazu, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 19. Dominic Day, 20 Leroy Houston, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Tom Heathcote, 23 Ollie Devoto

Full strength bath minus Davey Wilson, will be a close game, pitch will be wet but shouldn't be raining so may see some rugby played. Some great match ups across the pitch for me the most telling ones are:

Robshaw vs Louw - Englands best 7 against one of the worlds best 7's
Evans vs Ford- Real bench mark of how good ford is the master vs the apprentice
Brown vs Watson- The England incumbent vs the future ?

At the REC so Bath by 5 !!!!!

[yappysnap]

It'll be a test of Quins front 5 as well. Experienced guys like James, Webber and Hooper will look to mince our boys. It'll be a good test for the front row and Matthews.

[Toast]

Utter embarrassment from Quins. What a joke they are.

[Artful_Dodger]

  Saw your comments about Sexton and the Rabo in my Racing thread and thought it might be you.

Welcome back logans  

[Toast]

Quins will get hammered by Exeter this weekend. The sales for the BG event are the worst they've has since they opened up the top tier after BG1. Club going backwards on and off the field.

[formerly known as Sam]

Have Quins got to rest any EPS members this weekend? Tigers were instructed to rest Cole and did so vs Sarries last weekend.

[HammerofThunor]

Robshaw was rested a couple of times before the HEC games I think. Not sure about others.

[formerly known as Sam]

Could be a blow if they request for Brown to be rested. I think Care has been rotated enough to be exempt.

I can't see Quins just rolling over at Twickenham. I think it'll be a close one with Quins just pipping Exeter.

[Toast]

Lancaster doesnt want players rested and hasnt insisted on it since he took over. You're wrong about Cole.

[HammerofThunor]

Looks like Brown has played all the games (had a quick look at his profile, played both Jeff games after AI, both Europe games and last week. Given he played all three AI (didn't he?) he's got to be rested at some point.

[Toast]

no he doesnt

[ChequeredJersey]

Apparently it's only Lions Tourists that Lancaster has wanted rested. Otherwise it's not been a policy, though it may be in Briwn's best interests to rest him anyway and let OLH or Walker have a run out

[AsLongAsBut100ofUs]

Quins will get hammered by Exeter this weekend. The sales for the BG event are the worst they've has since they opened up the top tier after BG1. Club going backwards on and off the field.

Expecting a crowd of c.80k, I believe? Pretty poor, right enough!   

[Toast]

haha - dream on excuse maker

[ChequeredJersey]

There are just three changes to the side that played Bath last week as centre Tom Casson, scrum half Danny Care and tighthead prop Will Collier return from injury to start.

Care, Mike Brown, Nick Evans, George Robson, Chris Robshaw and Nick Easter have participated in all Big Games to date and will all make their sixth appearance in the annual festive fixture.

Tickets are still available and can be purchased through Ticketmaster until 11:00am tomorrow morning. The Harlequins ticket office will be taking calls from 9.30am until 12.00pm tomorrow. A walk up will also be available on the day from the RFU's ticket office in the South Stand between 12.00pm and 4.00pm.

Big Game 6 is much more than a day of rugby, with 2013 X Factor winner and Christmas Number 1 selling artist Sam Bailey performing alongside X Factor finalist Luke Friend at Rugby's HQ. There are a number of exciting activities in the West Car Park which include dodgems, face painters and passing challenges. To see the day's full schedule, please click here.

Harlequins team

15. Mike Brown
14. Charlie Walker
13. Matt Hopper
12. Tom Casson
11. Sam Smith
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Joe Marler
2. Dave Ward
3. Will Collier
4. Charlie Matthews
5. George Robson
6. Luke Wallace
7. Chris Robshaw (C)
8. Nick Easter

16. Max Crumpton
17. Mark Lambert
18. Paul Doran Jones
19. Nick Kennedy
20. Tom Guest
21. Karl Dickson
22. Ben Botica
23. Ollie Lindsay-Hague

[Toast]

predictable one trick ponies Harlequins will lose this badly

[ChequeredJersey]

Anyone know if there are still ASM tickets left?

[Toast]

Loads - Quins wont be selling any games out this season

[ChequeredJersey]

Excellent, can't wait to watch that

[Toast]

yep, Im sure another beating at home will cheer you up

[ChequeredJersey]

I'm a glutton for punishment, obviously

[yappysnap]

Looking forward to heading off to bg6 this weekend, should be a good day out win or lose   

COYQ's!!

[doctor_grey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYg6nMnNk1I


ooops. sorry, wrong thread.
(sadly, we are too poor to afford our own thread)

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