...first time I got a chance to see the Quins for 80 minutes....here are my thoughts.

Defence....far better than the last 3 seasons. In previous years I have seen us get rolled..especially in the second half of games, but this team seem to have it in them. They work well as a unit and Hudds worked hard for their 3 scores.
Attack....better than last year, but as the pundits pointed out, Hudds put real pressure on the kicker for the 5th and we suffered there. I would say that with 15 to go, I would have run Pryce into the ground......every time he got the ball with 3 yards in front of him Hudds looked rattled.

Chuffed that both the Hudds players interviewed and Carney recognised that we are a good team that will never give up......we will win more at home this year than we will lose.......and I don't think St Helens will be that confident of getting the win next week.

Overall..we bombed some chances, but not as many as Hudds and the better team won. Still, we are second tonight and I think 4th is the worst position we can end up in by Monday......i'd have taken that i'd you'd offered it to me at the start of the season.

Well done L&L.....I am sure the crowd will get their very own thread on the VT, but you made some noise

Good points Gutterfax



I thought the positives were Melling, Pryce, Ellis & to a lesser extent, Burnett. Also our fitness was a lot better than in the first 3 games, we finished the last 20 looking by far the better team.
The defence has most definitely improved on last season, still quite a lot to work to do on the attack.

The negatives were Howell(never looked like making a break), he seems a totally different player.
A poor kicking game, which was surprising considering it was a strong point last week.
Also I know it's been said many times on this forum, but a prop or two of considerable size and strength would be very welcome

Tough game for both teams and you're certainly no pushovers this season. Great 'never say die' attitude tonight. Good luck for the rest of the season and hope you continue to make London a difficult place to play.

Cheers,
Raaaay.

it was scrappy but the best team won, saying that though quins did play for the full 80 and kept the scoreline pretty close for the amount of poscession they had.. much improved on previous seasons

well played tonight.

Harlequins look a very strong side this season and pushed Hudds right to the final whistle. Hope you beat sides like St.Helens,Leeds(again),Bradford,Hull FC and Hull KR. Top 8 finish for you this season I reckon.





Good game by both sides and harlequins proved they are top 8 worthy

Apart from a few spells I thought we were pretty poor tonight and I hate to say it but even players like Rob Purdham were making uncharacteristic mistakes. There seemed to be no idea about what to do on the last tackle,and no kicking game especially when Ellis was off having taken a ball in the er... balls !! Think Ellis was our best player in spite of being off for a long spell recovering! Was going to start laying into Kouparitsas (is he the new Williamson?) but in the last 10-15 mins he seemed to start to do the right things - jury's still out on him as far as I am concerned.

On the plus side though we got ourselves back into the game, where perhaps in the last 2 seasons we would have been steamrollered by the Giants, and although I don't think we were going to threaten a shock comeback win we did keep going to the end.
I'd like to see Pryce get some game time - if he can get match fit then he could do some real damage to the opposition. Wonder how bad JO'C 's injury is? Will this lead to a chance for Calderwood on the wing?

As a neutral I thought it was great to see the Quins working hard in defence and not giving up. Had you not had three injured players on the field (two deadlegs and a bash in the bollox) then you might have finished off those last plays rather than cocking them up. And a damn shame the ball went to ground on that wonderful break you made in the first half. Although Hudds' try misses were obvious, Quins also botched a fair few opportunities (though as I say, I think that is because you were playing injured). More importantly, though, at this stage in the season and at home - you competed, and competed well. With your players recovered from their deadlegs and bashed bollox, and assuming you don't suffer significant injuries to your main guys, there is no reason on that showing why you can't be in the top eight this season IMO.

I'm not looking forward to your visit next weekend!

Missed Gale on this kicks this week (looks injured), Randall kept kicking direct to the Giants which did us no good. Best team one but we have come on a lot since last year and good to see a team effort until the end.

Good man Raaaay.......If you can get your backs to click (and not bomb so many tries

) I wouldn't be stunned to see the Giants at OT or at least Wembley this year........looking like a well balanced team

The video referee played a blinder as well !!!

Kicking game let us down tonight! Think that about sums it up! Did we actually get 1 kick away that did not go straight to hand?
Hudds on the otherhand awesome defence, and good kick option, they should have scored at least 2 more as well

Had the pass to Purds gone to hand in the first half I think the result woudl have been different