IT'S BACK - Harlequins vs Sale - Friday night

[Puja]

Squad (with club appearances)

1 - Joe Marler (201)
2 - Scott Baldwin (11)
3 - Simon Kerrod (20)
4 - Stephan Lewies (13)
5 - Matt Symons (41)
6 - James Chisholm (89)
7 - Chris Robshaw (292, captain)
8 - Alex Dombrandt (44)
9 - Martin Landajo (15)
10 - Marcus Smith (79)
11 - Nathan Earle (23)
12 - James Lang (59)
13 - Joe Marchant (85)
14 - Chris Ashton (0)
15 - Mike Brown (327)

Game Changers:

16 - Joe Gray (153)
17 - Santiago Garcia Botta (15)
18 - Will Collier (170)
19 - Dino Lamb (26)
20 - Tom Lawday (12)
21 - Will Evans (13)
22 - Scott Steele (0)
23 - Paul Lasike (22)





Puja

[Puja]

Good looking team for Quins. Earle's back fit again. I hadn't actually realised that Ashton hadn't appeared for Quins before the COVIDbreak.

Fascinating matchup between Marchant and Manu at 13. Be interesting to see how his time in NZ has improved Marchant.

Puja

[Banquo]

I'm assuming Sale's 11-15 have been learning Afrikaans...

[Mellsblue]

Times rugby podcast this week. Lam, Boyd and Dimond we’re discussing comms from Jones. Diamond was asked about comms from Erasmus...he said they were good but they had to be as he had 2/3 of his squad.
Thought Diamond came across very well in spite of his rep.

[Raggs]

Sale going to be struggling to meet their EQP requirements potentially? Long way from the days they had a mass representation of academy and English.

That backline is big. Scary big.

[Banquo]

Sale going to be struggling to meet their EQP requirements potentially? Long way from the days they had a mass representation of academy and English.

That backline is big. Scary big.

wingers might get a bit cold between Faf's kicking, Hills 'straight running' and Manu's 'straight running' . Give em an inch, and they'll take a Yarde.

[Scrumhead]

Frustrating that Care is out. Landajo needs to remind everyone why he’s an 80+ cap international.

Sale are probably a bit stronger on paper but not by that much IMO.

Interesting to see we’ve gone for a 6/2 split on the bench.

[Raggs]

Got to say I think Sale are going to take this one. Just too much power. Don't think it's completely cut and dry, I could see Smith and Marchant doing a good job, but I don't think it'll be enough.

[fivepointer]

It simply cannot be right that Sale field more South Africans than English in their starting XV.

Doesnt sit right with me.

[Scrumhead]

Depends how they start. Sale are usually slow out of the blocks after pre-season and while this isn’t quite the same, the break makes it feel a bit like that.

We beat them 51-23 on their last visit.

[Scrumhead]

It simply cannot be right that Sale field more South Africans than English in their starting XV.

Doesnt sit right with me.

Agreed ...

[Puja]

Got to say I think Sale are going to take this one. Just too much power. Don't think it's completely cut and dry, I could see Smith and Marchant doing a good job, but I don't think it'll be enough.

I think the difference could be in the forward packs. Sale having De Jager fit again could be crucial, although Lewies and Symons could fancy their chances on Vd Merwe's lineout throwing.

Sale going with a 10, 12, 13 who have never played together could be risky. You'd expect Smith to be poking some holes there.

Puja

[twitchy]

Really looking forward to it.

[Stom]

Apart from the injuries, that’s similar to what Quins fans wanted, except...

Nearly everyone said they wanted Elia but that Gustard would pick Baldwin.

What a surprise.

Can’t see us winning with that 9 and 12 and no outside back cover on the bench, plus losing the player who made 10%+ of our meters last season...

[Mellsblue]

Hope it matches up to Aotearoa. I suspect it might be a bit of a step down.....but live rugby is live rugby.

[Stom]

Quins XV - 10 English
Sale XV - 5 English

Quins XV - 2 SA
Sale XV - 8 SA.

It’s pretty disgraceful.

[Scrumhead]

Apart from the injuries, that’s similar to what Quins fans wanted, except...

Nearly everyone said they wanted Elia but that Gustard would pick Baldwin.

What a surprise.

Can’t see us winning with that 9 and 12 and no outside back cover on the bench, plus losing the player who made 10%+ of our meters last season...

I don’t know why you’re so negative?

Baldwin showed significant improvement after his injury so I’m OK with him being picked. I’d have liked to have seen Elia on the bench, but I’m not too bothered.

I’m not a fan of Landajo and would have preferred to have seen Steele, but I like the idea of Lang and Marchant bringing our back three in to the game a bit more and Lasike coming off the bench to make an impact on 50/60mins.

[Scrumhead]

Quins XV - 10 English
Sale XV - 5 English

Quins XV - 2 SA
Sale XV - 8 SA.

It’s pretty disgraceful.

Careful ... I doubt our South African players will outnumber our English players, but we could quite easily have 5 or 6 in the 23 when the new boys arrive. We might not be able to hold that moral high ground for long.

[Stom]

Quins XV - 10 English
Sale XV - 5 English

Quins XV - 2 SA
Sale XV - 8 SA.

It’s pretty disgraceful.

Careful ... I doubt our South African players will outnumber our English players, but we could quite easily have 5 or 6 in the 23 when the new boys arrive. We might not be able to hold that moral high ground for long.

We're not going to have more saffas than English players. And from that lineup, our Saffa imports are going to be replacing a Scot, another Saffa, and taking a bench spot, so we're not changing the EQP makeup of the XV.

[FKAS]

I'm assuming Sale's 11-15 have been learning Afrikaans...

Byron McGuigan was brought up on Cape Town so he's covered.

I presume the James brothers are injured otherwise one or both of them would be included. Sale do have 6 of 8 as English on the bench and would probably point to previous pilfering of their best young talent.

[Scrumhead]

Sam James in quarantine after spending time in Spain. Not sure about Luke?

[FKAS]

Sam James in quarantine after spending time in Spain. Not sure about Luke?

That's unfortunate. I'd very much like to see a Sam James and Manu Tuilagi midfield. I'd have preferred to see it in Green, Red and White but that's a different matter. Hopefully he's out of quarantine soon.

[16th man]

Sale opting to put out pretty much the entire Saffer contingent (minu van Rensburg) is probably down to Dimes reckoning it'll be pretty error strewn so going for the biggest unit we can put out first up.

The Half Backs and de Jager aside, as they are obviously a cut above anyone else in the squad in their positions, there are English options that could be used to make the side much more mobile, without a huge quality drop off.

With the tactical choice being the sledgehammer, that is probably the best xv to do the job.

The subs, where there are more EQP look like they could make things a bit more light on their feet.

[Scrumhead]

To be fair, Diamond might also have played van Rensburg had he not been banned.

[BenHK]

Quins XV - 10 English
Sale XV - 5 English

Quins XV - 2 SA
Sale XV - 8 SA.

It’s pretty disgraceful.

Sale XV actually has one more England EQP in there as Jono Ross is EQP through grandparents.

So 7 SA, 6 EQP, 1 Scot and 1 Welshman (who is actually also EQP having never represented Wales and born in Plymouth).

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk