AP Round 14

First topic message reminder :

After a month away, the Premiership returns and we enter the Phoney War period where sides find themselves bereft of key players. Allied to the usual lengthy injury lists, most sides will see some pretty unfamiliar faces. This is a time when sides can make a march up the table so loads to play for.

Table




Fri 13th Feb

19:45 LEICESTER TIGERS  v   GLOUCESTER RUGBY Welford Road BT Sport

The overlords at BT Sport will be hoping the return of AP action sees a match similar to the 41-41 match of four years ago. Sadly being a Friday night in February we are unlikely to see quite that sort of quality. Tigers have been pushing this fixture with the Valentine's Day theme with all sorts of gruesome entertainment planned (Kiss cam, Mr and Mrs etc). Thus I hope we do get some entertainment on the pitch.
In the month since these sides last saw AP action, Gloucester have won all 4 matches while Leicester have had just the one defeat - though a chastening one in Belfast. Freddie burns seems to have moved ahead of Owen Williams in the fight for the 10 shirt and may enjoy a run out against his old team. With both sides missing key players on international duty, it could be Gloucester worst hit as though fewer in number they are critical players to lose. We can probably expect Leicester to continue the recent policy of running from every where - allied to a probable edge in the forward exchanges it could mean a decent win for the home side. Matt Kvesic's ability to secure turnovers could be vital and I look forward to his scrap with Salvi.


19:45 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS  v   LONDON IRISH Franklin's Gardens

Saints have not been playing well in 2015 and will be missing a lot of players. Indications are that Myler and Corbisiero, who were ruled out of England contention due to niggles, should be fit to feature. Saints will need them. Irish lose no-one to the england squad, but are without a few Scots. their AP form has tailed off, but strong performances in the Challenge cup should give them hope. Historically this is the best time to face Northampton and an East Midlands double is certainly possible for LI.



Sat 14th Feb 15

16:30 EXETER CHIEFS  v   NEWCASTLE FALCONS Sandy Park
Exeter are, I think, untroubled by international call-ups. Falcons will be missing Brookes and Furno. In the break Chiefs qualified from both their Challenge Cup and LV pools, though the manner of the defeat against Sarries kids may have been chastening. From a high point before Christams of second in the table, the home side have dropped out of the Play-off spots. they will be desperate for the win and this desire could be the key factor.

13:00 LONDON WELSH  v   SALE SHARKS Kassam Stadium
London Welsh continue in their search for a first win. Doubt Sale will accommodate them



Sun 15th Feb 15
13:00 SARACENS  v   BATH RUGBY Allianz Park BT Sport
A real shame that such a match will take place during the International window. Missing their first choice props will Bath continue the policy of picking the front row as a unit and leave Webber on the bench? Saracens look to have a squad (and players returning) to cope with the disruptions of 6Ns better. Bath however know that a defeat will close the gap they have over Sarries significantly.

14:00 WASPS  v   HARLEQUINS Ricoh Arena
Wasps enter this fixture with close to a full strength side, while stuttering quins will be missing vital men who form the core of their team. Logic suggests Wasps should win this at a canter - but I reckon we can throw logic out of the window. With Haskell, Easte and Robshaw in 6Ns duty and Johnson serving the last week of his ban the key to this game could lie in how the reserve back rows go. Then we have the potential (fitness assuming) matchups of Simpson/Goode and Care/Evans at HB. Must win match for both sides could make it a tense affair.

As soon as the highlights are online we can all check.

Sounds good

Exeter 46 - 17 Falcons

Genuine kicking for us today....

Do you think maybe Deano should have rested some players last week GF?

Wow, I didn't see that coming. The handicap was +12 for Falcons and I put a couple of quid on as I thought they'd get close.

Didn't see the game but a few of the lads who were there said it was like watching us 12 months ago...inept.

Newcastle didn't turn up until after half time by which time Exeter had already secured the bonus point! shining light's for Newcastle were Tom Caterick at 10 who was excellent and Sinoti Sinoti who looks incredibly hard to tackle, when he ran full steam into Matt Jess i thought the force of impact was akin to a bloody car crash.

Tiger,

Catterick is finally fulfilling his potential and Sinoti is just immense.

LondonTiger wrote:As soon as the highlights are online we can all check.

Just seen the replay on BT Sport and I'm struggling to see how it was called as a knock on ... and Healey clearly agreed based on a comment in the Sarries/Bath match.

Sarries doing well so far. Need to keep up the momentum.

Should have kicked for the corner instead of taking the 3.

Typical conservative play. A try bonus is here for the taking.

With all these result ATM 7th place ATM (Leicester) is only 8 points behind 2nd place Bath.

tightest league table I have seen.

4 points separate 3rd and 7th.

Heaf wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:As soon as the highlights are online we can all check.

Just seen the replay on BT Sport and I'm struggling to see how it was called as a knock on ... and Healey clearly agreed based on a comment in the Sarries/Bath match.

Watched it about 9 times and I think the ball hits the ground marginally in front of where his hands were when he was last holding it. Really marginal though and surprised it was given on the field.

In trying to find it though i saw any number of penalty offences that Small let go. Both teams benefited, but especially LI who were unbinding and rebinding at every driving maul.

Quality of reffing in the premiership is poor, and it is galling when what may have been a mistake was at such a time in the game. However there were plenty of other mistakes in the teams favour.

I feel pretty safe in stating Glen Jackson would not have given it as a knock on.

Another one we'll have to chalk up to unlucky - bit like the Sarries game early in the season.

Yes Jackson had a shocker today - If I was Scottish I'd feel hard done by.

Interesting to hear that Flatman also thought Irish had scored at the end there ... oh well.

Heaf wrote:Interesting to hear that Flatman also thought Irish had scored at the end there ... oh well.

He also said the Banahan could be in line for an England call up

formerly known as Sam wrote:A bit of player burn out Doc? There's not an awful lot of rotation at Saints.

Could be Sam, with the injuries we have been playing a very similar side for some time

HongKongCherry wrote:

Heaf wrote:Interesting to hear that Flatman also thought Irish had scored at the end there ... oh well.

He also said the Banahan could be in line for an England call up

Well one out of two isn't bad

Papers suggest that Care was really poor against wasps. anyone see the game?

The whole team were terrible by all accounts, lots of talk that it was our worst game of the season.

Zero passion, zero precision, zero power and almost zero points!

I'll be amazed if we don't see more players leave Quins this season/next season, we're carrying a lot of dead weight in the first team at the mo and in the coaching team too, CoS needs to mix that up a little.

Top 6 is out of the question now, so I guess next year we can look forward to judging the new challenge cup.

Lastly just seen we've signed ex falcons Shields(sp) as injury cover. Depressing.

I don't know why shields hasn't made it. He looked a real quality player and put in some cracking shifts. He is a bit on the small side, and I wonder how his injuries stopped his progression.  

If he can get a good run he might make it back up. Who knows

I thought he was off to Edinburgh?

yappy, the table is tight in the middle section, and a couple of wins will se eyou right back in the mix for top 6 and a Champions Cup spot.

If it had gone to the TMO there still would be people unhappy with the decision, whichever way it was made.

Ozzy3213 wrote: yappy, the table is tight in the middle section, and a couple of wins will see you right back in the mix for top 6 and a Champions Cup spot.

It depends what your run in is like yappy.  Quins were always going to suffer during the 6N , effectively losing two captains and a couple of other players.

Teams around you like Exe, Sale and Wasps are losing few, if any, players to the 6N and have started to pick up points.

In the last 8 games Wasps have Saints and the bottom three teams away. At home we have four of the teams we will be vying with for a top 4/6 place - Sarries, Tigers, Chiefs and Gloucester.

I am hoping for a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 27 match points. How many do you think Quins will get?

Hound we have:

Harlequins v Exeter Chiefs
Northampton Saints v Harlequins
Harlequins v London Irish
Saracens v Harlequins
Harlequins v Gloucester Rugby
Sale Sharks v Harlequins
Harlequins v Bath Rugby
Newcastle Falcons v Harlequins

So I'd hope for wins v Irish, Glos and Falcons. We could potentially sneak wins v Exeter and Sale but that's really about all.


So that's a minimum 12 points, maximum 20. Will that be enough?

yappysnap wrote:Hound we have:

Harlequins v Exeter Chiefs
Northampton Saints v Harlequins
Harlequins v London Irish
Saracens v Harlequins
Harlequins v Gloucester Rugby
Sale Sharks v Harlequins
Harlequins v Bath Rugby
Newcastle Falcons v Harlequins

So I'd hope for wins v Irish, Glos and Falcons. We could potentially sneak wins v Exeter and Sale but that's really about all.


So that's a minimum 12 points, maximum 20. Will that be enough?

Well I hope we disappoint you

Another good win for Wasps and another decent crowd of 16,116. Can't wait until Wasps take on Leicester on May 9th. Plenty of local spice being added to the newest of local derbies.

The club has also announced that 73% of tickets have been sold in the Coventry/ Birmingham area.