Quins vs Bristol, Saturday, October 26th (3pm KO)

[jimKRFC]

Bristol side:
15. Charles Piutau; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Piers O’Conor, 12. Siale Piutau, 11. Mat Protheroe; 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Andy Uren; 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. John Afoa, 4. Joe Joyce, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Nathan Hughes.

Replacements: 16. Shaun Malton, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Lewis Thiede, 19. Ed Holmes, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Harry Randall, 22. Ioan Lloyd, 23. Will Hurrell.

Pretty happy with that side, shame Alapati is out for 6 weeks though, but a great chance for Protheroe to make the spot his own. Also glad we've dropped the "game changers/impact players" tag for the replacements.

Quins:
Harlequins Starting XV:

1 Santiago Garcia Botta, 2 Scott Baldwin, 3 Will Collier, 4 Stephan Lewies, 5 Matt Symons,6 Chris Robshaw, 7 Will Evans, 8 Tom Lawday, 9 Martin Landajo, 10 Marcus Smith, 11 Gabriel Ibitoye, 12 Ben Tapuai, 13 Joe Marchant, 14 Cadan Murley, 15 Aaron Morris (34)

Game Changers:
16 Elia Elia, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 Glen Young, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Niall Saunders, 22 James Lang, 23 Ross Chisholm

[jimKRFC]

Quins supporters seem confident:

All in all, I am happy that we can put Bristol to the sword in what could be another high-scoring game against them. The team have had another week to work on manoeuvres and develop familiarity. The players are quality and we have strength all over the park.

[Peej]

I'm not sure I'd be too confident playing Bris

[Stom]

I seriously think Briz might well be challenging for the title.

This will be a tough game, especially with our unavailables. Wonder why Dombrandt is getting the extra rest, he's a step up on Lawday.

I really like Briz backrow now, Hughes is a great fit there. Adds exactly what they've been missing. But no Attwood is a loss. Siale Piutau is one of those underrated "glue" players, for me.

[fivepointer]

Game of the weekend for me. Bristol were mightily impressive last week and will look to build on that. Big test at Quins, who will be looking to make their own statement.
Not on tv, unfortunately, but a game that should be high scoring and entertaining.

[Scrumhead]

I seriously think Briz might well be challenging for the title.

This will be a tough game, especially with our unavailables. Wonder why Dombrandt is getting the extra rest, he's a step up on Lawday.

I really like Briz backrow now, Hughes is a great fit there. Adds exactly what they've been missing. But no Attwood is a loss. Siale Piutau is one of those underrated "glue" players, for me.

Agreed. Dan Thomas is another one of those ‘glue’ players. Lam has done a great job on the recruitment front - I know that they have lots of money behind them, but he deserves credit for signing the right kind of players.

I’m not sure they’ll be challenging for the title, but I wouldn’t put it past them qualifying the play-offs (and then losing to one of the favourites in the semi-final).

If Quins are aspiring to do the same, we need to be winning home games against our closest competition.