It was the best of teams; it was the worst of teams.
Thursday’s European showdown at the Arms Park epitomised two teams at opposing stages in their campaigns. On one side, Thursday night games seem to pay dividends for Harlequins, who topped Pool Three in the Challenge Cup this weekend; whilst, on the other, Cardiff Blues season seems to be going from bad to worse.
For the victors, last week’s clash with Montpellier at the Stoop saw them run away six tries to claim a bonus point victory, and this week, they maxed out with ten points from two games as they beat the home side in the shadow of the Millennium Stadium.
The combined attendance of both matches? A meagre 13,750 – a poor showing considering the London based side bring 82,000 to Twickenham every Christmas for their famed Big Game, which is now in its eighth instalment. But, lack of support didn’t seem to affect the results, as Quins now look unshakeable at the top of Pool three in the Challenge Cup, with a matchup against Calvisano to come on the 12th December.
Thursday night’s win brings them to five wins from six games for the season so far – the only loss being the second round Aviva Premiership clash with Leicester Tigers at Welford Road which saw them edged out 22-19 in the dying minutes of the game – and caps off a very successful start from the boys in quartered shirts. With a 100% home win record, and big wins away at both Bath and Cardiff, morale at the Stoop is remarkably high.
So what’s changed at the club that recorded a disappointing eighth place finish in the Aviva Premiership last year?
Is it the introduction of new key signings? The addition of internationals Tim Visser, Adam Jones, James Horwill and Jamie Roberts to the Quins family was expected to improve squad strength for the upcoming season. These four internationals, alongside the likes of Mat Luamanu, Tim Swiel, Matt Shields, Owen Evans and Winston Stanley, was a rare expenditure from a side who usually favour nurturing home grown talent from their highly successful Academy over importing already-made names.
But have the new signings really made that much of an impact? Jamie Roberts is yet to start, having been on international duty for the first part of the season, and currently distracted by his focus on the start of his masters at Cambridge University. Owen Evans and Winston Stanley are both also uncapped, whilst Mat Luamanu is out with a pectoral injury that will see him sidelined for at least ten weeks. Adam Jones, although adding a wealth of experience to the side with his 95 international caps for Wales, is, at close to 35, somewhat past his best, whilst former Australia captain James Horwill at 30 is nowhere near his past international form. Tim Visser seems to be the most promising of the new additions, scoring on his debut at the Stoop against Sale, and adding a second try in four appearances on Thursday night.
So with new signings not necessarily translating to performance, what other factors have changed down at Quins? There’s definitely a sense of strong leadership. With club captain Danny Care on international duty for the first part of the season, Harlequins legend Nick Evans stepped up to claim the armband, and even at 35, the New Zealand born fly half has been thoroughly impressive, leading from the front to claim the Premiership Player of the month award for October. Danny Care has equally grown into the role, scoring the bonus point winning try in the last minute of Thursday night’s matchup which brings him to a total of three tries in four games. He has taken the captaincy with a new style of composed, intelligent play that he credits to the birth of his son, Blake, and engagement to fiance Jodie Henson. And, outside the captain’s role, Quins boast England captain Chris Robshaw amongst their ranks, whilst World class England full back Mike Brown is a stalwart of the club, alongside former club captain and England prop Joe Marler; each of whom are capable of calm and clear leadership both on and off the field. With Robshaw and Brown both recently committing their futures to the club, Quins have players with this quality in bucketloads.
Aside of strong leadership, there is a sense of belief at Quins that they can record big victories. With Director of Rugby Conor O’Shea open about his desire to book a Top Four Premiership place, and recent performances reflecting this aim, morale at the Stoop is high. There is a sense of respect for the coaching team, composed of Head Coach John Kingston, Backs Coach Mark Mapletoft and Defense Coach Tony Diprose – he himself a former Quins legend – a combination of whom have produced some stunning half time talks in recent weeks that have transformed the team and seen them emerge from the break reinvigorated and energised. At their best, Quins truly believe that they are unbeatable, with a style of fast, flowing rugby based on slinging the ball around which is not only effective, but beautiful to watch when executed well. This attitude carries through the whole team, inspiring wonderful individual performances such as blinding breaks down the wing from the likes of Tim Visser, or hooker Dave Ward, who put in an incredible shift out of position in the back row on Thursday night. When they play like this, it is easy to see how they lifted the Premiership trophy back in 2012, and the LV= Cup the following year. Quins believe that they are back to this title-winning best, and it is this belief is which is carrying them through to win week in, week 0ut.
On the other hand, in the tale of two teams, Cardiff’s season seems to be going from bad to worse. They are still without influential captain Sam Warburton, who was on World Cup duty for the start of the season, and was ruled out of Thursday night’s clash due to illness. And, with just two wins from nine – out of which both victories were somewhat expected against Italian sides Zebre and Calvisano – they are neither comfortable in the Pro 12 nor the Challenge Cup. In the Pro 12, they sit in 11th place, sandwiched by Italian teams Zebre and Benetton Treviso; a disappointing showing from the side that lifted the Heineken Cup only five years ago. They recorded a frutrating loss away at Zebre back in October, whilst they were convincingly beaten by both Leinster and Munster.
However, they have not been embarrassed in any of their games. Thursday night’s loss to Quins was the biggest margin of loss recorded all season, and they would have scraped the losing bonus point had Danny Care not crossed in the 80th minute for the away side. In fact, the results really do not reflect how Cardiff have been playing. They’ve won five bonus points in seven matches in the League, second only to fifth and sixth places Ulster and Glasgow, who each have six to their name. And matches have been far closer than the scoreline reads, with the Blues seemingly throwing away games by losing concentration in small periods.
On Thursday night, for example, they led 6 – 3 at half-time, and had a try disallowed which arguably should have gone to the TMO. In the first half, Quins struggled to get into the Welsh 22, in fact only managing to do so for the first time near the end of the second half, and the pressure was all Cardiff’s. Ellis James was sensational at the breakdown, forcing penalty after penalty, whilst Cardiff also seemed to dominate the scrum, and found themselves camped on the Quins try-line many a time without coming away with the points. It was only in a short, two minute burst in the second half where Quins scored twice through Visser and Lindsay-Hague in as many minutes and swung momentum to the away side. Two more scores from Walker and Care meant that the victory was well and truly sewn up, despite a late Hobbs try when Cardiff went a man down. Head Coach Danny Wilson struggled to hide his frustration post-game: “We are too inconsistent… We show patches of what we are capable of and then have moments of pure meltdown where we give the opposition way too many easy opportunities to score against us”.
This comment is all too telling of the story of their season, and Cardiff need to find some form as they re-enter the Pro 12 next weekend, when they will take on Ospreys at the Liberty. With Connacht and Scarlets to come before Christmas, as well as Montpellier both home and away in European competition, they risk going into the holiday season with a meagre one win from ten games, and alarm bells will start to ring at the Arms Park if they cannot start recording more positive results soon.
Quins, conversely, will draw Exeter, Irish and Calvisano before the festive period, and face a far easier run up to Christmas than their Welsh rivals. They will look to enjoy the break from an elevated position in both the Premiership and Challenge Cup, and will look forwards to the Big Game tie at Twickenham with Gloucester on the 27th November.
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