Quins vs Newcastle - Sat 3pm

[Puja]

Harlequins doing an LGBTQ Pride match, which I hadn't realised. Nice.

Harlequins Starting XV.

1. Joe Marler (264)
2. Jack Walker (42)
3. Wilco Louw (64)
4. Dino Lamb (80)
5. Irne Herbst (21)
6. Luke Wallace (195)
7. Will Evans (61)
8. Alex Dombrandt – Captain (111)
9. Danny Care (356)
10. Marcus Smith (137)
11. Cadan Murley (97)
12. Andre Esterhuizen (67)
13. Joe Marchant (150)
14. Louis Lynagh (41)
15. Nick David (30)

Impact Players
16. Sam Riley (27)
17. Fin Baxter (23)
18. Simon Kerrod (93)
19. George Hammond (38)
20. Jack Kenningham (39)
21. Lewis Gjaltema (26)
22. Oscar Beard (27)
23. Josh Bassett (13)



Newcastle Falcons team to face Harlequins (Saturday, 3pm, Twickenham Stoop)

15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Ben Stevenson, 12 Matias Moroni, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Michael Young (captain); 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Mark Tampin, 4 Greg Peterson, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 Pedro Rubiolo, 7 Callum Chick, 8 Carl Fearns.

Replacements: 16 Conrad Cade, 17 Logovi’i Mulipola, 18 Conor Kenny, 19 Freddie Lockwood, 20 Tom Marshall, 21 Sam Stuart, 22 Josh Thomas, 23 Pete Lucock.

Not available for selection: Connor Collett, Luke Coulston, Ollie Fletcher, Gary Graham, Ewan Greenlaw, Zach Kerr, Charlie Maddison, Matias Orlando, Tom Penny, Guy Pepper, Richard Palframan, Vereimi Qorowale, Sean Robinson, Oliver Spencer, Philip van der Walt, George Wacokecoke, Will Welch.

[stepsider]

Quins 91% H1 territory but have only just now managed to score a try, 7-10 down on 37 minutes.

[Mikey Brown]

Bassett playing 15 ahead of Lynagh?

[FKAS]

Quins run away with it at the end. Looked close at 22-20 with young Marcus missing conversions for fun (though I only had the Beeb updates so they could all have been touchline efforts).

[stepsider]

Smith missed a couple from wide out + another you'd have have expected him to slot. But he nailed a couple of touchline efforts towards the end. In general, he played well in attack but tackling was suspect.

Weird game, Quins could have reached almost three figures if the forwards in particular hadn't fouled up so many chances five yards out. But they continued to play sevens style 15s (14s for some of the time) and eventually ran Falcons ragged.

[Mikey Brown]

Booo. How dare you criticise Smith in any way.

[stepsider]

Booo. How dare you criticise Smith in any way.

TBH he seemed rather lacking in confidence initially - hardly surprising IMHO - but when Quins' forwards decided to stop fouling up good opportunities and let the backs have the ball, his confidence and kicking improved.

What's unequivocal is that he has far more natural talent than OF. But we all know that anyway.