Challenge Cup Round 3: Harlequins v Cardiff Blues, 17 January

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Harlequins v Cardiff Blues
Sunday 17 January 2016
KO 15:15
The Stoop, Twickenham

Live on Sky Sports

Referee Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Touch Judge 1 Mark Patton (Ireland)
Touch Judge 2 Jonathan Peak (Ireland)
Fourth Official Jude Quinn (Ireland)
TMO Jude Quinn (Ireland)
Assessor Martin Fox (England)
Citing Commissioner Yann Le Dore (France)

A. Head to Head

1 Played 1
1 Wins 0
0 Losses 1
0 Draws 0
32 Points 20

B. Tournament Form

Harlequins
19/12/15: Quins 59 - 7 Calvisano
12/12/15: Calvisano 10 - 50 Quins
19/11/15: Blues 20 - 32 Quins

Cardiff Blues

17/12/15: Montpellier 23 - 22 Blues
11/12/15: Blues 37 - 27 Montpellier
19/11/15: Blues 20 - 32 Quins

C. Teams

Harlequins

15 Mike Brown
14 Marland Yarde
13 George Lowe
12 Jamie Roberts
11 Ross Chisholm
10 Nick Evans
9 Danny Care (capt)

1 Joe Marler
2 Rob Buchanan
3 Will Collier
4 George Merrick
5 Charlie Matthews
6 Chris Robshaw
7 Jack Clifford
8 Nick Easter

16 Dave Ward
17 Mark Lambert
18 Kyle Sinckler
19 Mat Luamanu
20 Luke Wallace
21 Karl Dickson
22 Ben Botica
23 Charlie Walker

Cardiff Blues

15 Dan Fish
14 Alex Cuthbert
13 Cory Allen
12 Rey Lee-Lo
11 Tom James
10 Rhys Patchell
9 Lloyd Williams (capt)

1 Sam Hobbs
2 Kristian Dacey
3 Tau Filise
4 Macauley Cook
5 James Down
6 Josh Turnbull
7 Josh Navidi
8 Manoa Vosawai

16 Ethan Lewis
17 Tom Davies
18 Dillon Lewis
19 Jarrad Hoeata
20 Ellis Jenkins
21 Tavis Knoyle
22 Gareth Anscombe
23 Gavin Evans

Coleman wrote:

wales606 wrote:Anscombe and Patchell on the pitch and the passes are zipping along the backline,

Some lovely play by the Blues

We are becoming the comeback kings.

3 in a row???

This would be the biggest...just

I wish we'd just stop being awful in the first 20/30 mins of a game. We gifted so much to Quins there.

Yeah, it's very strange.

Defence needs some work, not sure if Steadman is the right man.

wales606 wrote:

Coleman wrote:

wales606 wrote:Anscombe and Patchell on the pitch and the passes are zipping along the backline,

Some lovely play by the Blues

We are becoming the comeback kings.

3 in a row???

This would be the biggest...just

I wish we'd just stop being awful in the first 20/30 mins of a game. We gifted so much to Quins there.

Yeah, it's very strange.

Defence needs some work, not sure if Steadman is the right man.

He's not been here for long but some of our first up tackles are dreadful. Vos left Lee-Lo stranded for the Yarde try. No one checking for the break off on the Clifford try. I honestly thought we might nick that at the end. Fish gets better every week.

Fair play to Cardiff, you switched on in the second half and pushed us all the way. Seems unfair that you didn't at least get the lbp.

As to Quins. Well not sure what to make of that, hopefully just a massive case of complacency getting those 4 tries so easily, combined with exhaustion from the Sarries game.

Next week we should start all the subs from today's game, give the others a bit of a rest and get some competition in the ranks.

Thought Robshaw, Marler and Easter were all dominant when on, Synckler as well made a big impact!

In the backs the Care, Evans, Roberts combo was very good. Slight worry about the real drop off when the replacement 9 and 10 came in though.

Lastly I think the hype for Clifford is getting a bit much. He's definitely a talent for the future but showed all his good and bad on Sat. To me he's a little lightweight still, and still pretty raw. You could see he was very unsettled moved to 8 and his whole game suffered. Very good at 7 though except on the deck.

I agree, I am a fan of Cliffords but I am not convinced that he is ready yet to step up to international level!
There is definately a size issue - but not in a way that he can make it work for himself like N.Back did. But there is plenty of time to make edits and if Jones gives him licence to play in a way that gets the best out of him then so be it.

All the shuffling in the second half didnt help! Lumanu going into the 2nd row kind of nullified his impact!
Great 1st half and massive drop off in the second half!

That was the best game i have seen this weekend, and possibly all season in the European tournaments.

Blues really have the making up of a very good team and they will be a threat to anyone with the new signings coming. Yesterday they were missing some key players as well so this is very encouraging.

Vosawai had another great game, people are saying Nick Williams will be an upgrade on him, well i beg to disagree and i think Blues should keep Vosawai and rotate with Williams for next season.

Cardiffs long passing, the speed they got the ball out to the wings and the precision was very impressive.

I don't think Clifford lacks power, I think he's one of our best tight as well as loose carriers

Maybe its a perception thing with Clifford - He just has a more lean physic.
Represents more of a Croft type player than your more conventional bruising Hendre Fourie (not sure why he comes to mind) or Haskell type player.

The age old question of what's true on the internet but Clifford is taller and slightly heavier than Robshaw (who is apparently too heavy to be an international backrow).

I always thought Robshaw's 17 stone was slightly exaggerated. He doesn't look bigger than Warburton or Roberts.

I had originally penned in Kvesic to my England XV but I hadn't seen much of him, though I did watch Clifford against Blues and he was very good. I've been reading good reports about the lad all season, he should have won U20 POTY the year he captained that England team to winning the title.

I don't think Clifford's underpowered - he's not as big as Billy or Ben, but he's faster and still makes good headway running into traffic. He also has a step and better handling than either of them - was a centre in his teens. He's also very different from Croft - not as good at lineout steals, obviously, but a more effective carrier in midfield and less likely to be found hanging about on the wing.

The player that he's most like is the young Dallaglio, before his knee injuries and decision to bulk up and specialise at 8. Similar size and weight, similar ability across the back row, more hair. Assuming Clifford doesn't crock his knees, he will probably end up like a faster version of Dallaglio. This is not a thing that I think England or Quins would regret having.

Yeah, gives a completely different option at 8 who can cover flanker.

Power approach with Morgan/Billy/Hughes not working?
Bring on the pace approach.

Whether he is ready or not, he is QUICK

VinceWLB wrote:Some good stuff from Cardiff here

Nice to read posts like this. How good were Cardiff btw as I didn't see the game, only the highlights.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Well done Cardiff, this game is not over yet

Went down to the wire didn't it? D'you reckon Cardiff could've sneaked a win?

Cardiff Dave wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Well done Cardiff, this game is not over yet

Went down to the wire didn't it? D'you reckon Cardiff could've sneaked a win?

I was a touch nervous in the last 10

ChequeredJersey wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Well done Cardiff, this game is not over yet

Went down to the wire didn't it? D'you reckon Cardiff could've sneaked a win?

I was a touch nervous in the last 10

So Cardiff could've won it then, excellent. Can't beat an edgy last 10 mind ewe especially when you're at the game. Didn't expect a Cardiff win, but happy they put on a show.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Well done Cardiff, this game is not over yet

Went down to the wire didn't it? D'you reckon Cardiff could've sneaked a win?

I was a touch nervous in the last 10

So Cardiff could've won it then, excellent. Can't beat an edgy last 10 mind ewe especially when you're at the game. Didn't expect a Cardiff win, but happy they put on a show.

Yep, Blues had all the momentum in the second half. Harlequins finally manage to get some territory in the last 5 minutes and knocked over the penalty to deny the Blues a LBP, but if the Blues had managed to get possession they were doing a great job of making yards out wide and could have won it.

wales606 wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Well done Cardiff, this game is not over yet

Went down to the wire didn't it? D'you reckon Cardiff could've sneaked a win?

I was a touch nervous in the last 10

So Cardiff could've won it then, excellent. Can't beat an edgy last 10 mind ewe especially when you're at the game. Didn't expect a Cardiff win, but happy they put on a show.

Yep, Blues had all the momentum in the second half. Harlequins finally manage to get some territory in the last 5 minutes and knocked over the penalty to deny the Blues a LBP, but if the Blues had managed to get possession they were doing a great job of making yards out wide and could have won it.

Blues made a good comeback and their TBP was well earned. To be honest the scoreline could have been much closer in the first half, but Blues couldn't finish their chances and Quins did.

That said, the closest they got was to 5 points, and Quins had enough in reserve to open it back to 8. I was a bit nervous in the last 10 but never really felt Quins were going to lose.

The front rowers that played did well and that's promising news, but where was Jenkins and Ma'afu? I can't help but think the scrums would have been more in the Blues favour had they been the ones to come onto the pitch in the second half. BTW Thought Quins looked very average in the 2nd half up against what was a mixed team from the Blues.

Yeah Quins completely switched off, just like against Worcester. I almost feel it's better not to get into too large a lead, it's quite annoying

Yea totally switched off for the second half.

Montpellier on Friday should be a better game from us as I can't see Quins running away with it in the first half.

If you're taking that game seriously you should win.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Yeah Quins completely switched off, just like against Worcester. I almost feel it's better not to get into too large a lead, it's quite annoying

Can't imagine being annoyed at Cardiff leading 28-0 at HT, but there we are. Maybe next season.

Coleman wrote:

wales606 wrote:Anscombe and Patchell on the pitch and the passes are zipping along the backline,

Some lovely play by the Blues

We are becoming the comeback kings.

3 in a row???

This would be the biggest...just

I wish we'd just stop being awful in the first 20/30 mins of a game. We gifted so much to Quins there.

Brace dictated the momentum of the game.