Edinburgh vs Harlequins - Saturday 22 October 2016

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Game: Edinburgh vs Harlequins
Date: Saturday 22nd October 2016
Kick-off: 3:15pm
Venue: BT Murrayfield
Competition: Mickey Mouse Cup - Pool 5
Form:
Timisoara Saracens 17 - 59 Edinburgh Rugby
Harlequins 43 - 21 Stade Francais
Interesting Facts:
Edinburgh - The Edinburgh District side was formed in 1872 to play against a Glasgow District side. The teams met on 23 November 1872 at Burnbrae and Edinburgh won 3–0 in a 20-a-side fixture. This is the oldest inter-district match in the world and to mark this the current Glasgow and Edinburgh sides play for the 1872 Cup every year, which Edinburgh typically wins handsomely.

Harlequins - The Hampstead Football Club was founded in 1866 and the first recorded game took place in 1867. The club was renamed Harlequin Rugby Football Club in 1870, supposedly because the membership was no longer purely local but the HFC monogram had to be retained. The word 'Harlequin' was found in a dictionary and all present agreed to the new name. This caused a split in the membership and the half that did not form the Harlequins went off and formed the club now known as Wasps.
Head to head: Edinburgh have never played Quins in European competition before.

propdavid_london wrote:Really disappointing from Quins.  Nice to see that we are carrying on our tradition of being rubbish when travelling!
Fair play to Edinburgh, that 1st half performance was clinical - and yes I agree RDW, some of those ref decisions were unusual.

Was nice to see that Quins came out with a bit more oomph in the 2nd half - but play didn't really improve until Swiel came on for NEv.  I know he is the big name player at the moment but if Swiel is playing better at the moment then I would much prefer to stick with him.  

Agreed. This is a real test of leadership for the Quins management. Swiel should start with Evans forced to work his way back from the bench. There's no doubting the quality of Evans, he's been sensational for Quins over the years, but rugby squads need to be a meritocracy with form playing a huge role in selection.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

propdavid_london wrote:Really disappointing from Quins.  Nice to see that we are carrying on our tradition of being rubbish when travelling!
Fair play to Edinburgh, that 1st half performance was clinical - and yes I agree RDW, some of those ref decisions were unusual.

Was nice to see that Quins came out with a bit more oomph in the 2nd half - but play didn't really improve until Swiel came on for NEv.  I know he is the big name player at the moment but if Swiel is playing better at the moment then I would much prefer to stick with him.  

Agreed. This is a real test of leadership for the Quins management. Swiel should start with Evans forced to work his way back from the bench. There's no doubting the quality of Evans, he's been sensational for Quins over the years, but rugby squads need to be a meritocracy with form playing a huge role in selection.

Agree with that.

What's more annoying is that Evans has had some fantastic displays off the bench too, in the past he's come on and won games. He could do that again I don't doubt.

Agreed, Swiel deserves to start on current form. Can't complain at having NEv to come off the bench.

Swiel's kicking out of hand is a little erratic, but his passing is superb, he brings Visser and Yarde into the game much than Evans has been able to this season.