No chance this time around - we didn't qualify, to apply. As yet nobody knows if Championship clubs can apply in 2015 - I expect the Rfl will announce something in 2014!!

Look on the bright side Dave. YOU can't get relegated!!

I agree its pre season but what I saw with my own eyes verses Skolars with regards to defence worried me. We were opened up by Skolars a good number of times, more than I had seen in previous capital games. The score yesterday would suggest there are grounds to be worried. For the record I don’t think we will be at the top of the league but at the same time defending the goal line is an important facet of the game.

You appear to play down pre season games as being completely insignificant.

That's an interesting interpretation of my post.

My own position is that you cannot judge how a season is going to go based on two pre-season games, particularly one against London Skolars that is used every year primarily as a marketing tool. I understand that people are excited about the season starting and want to get as much information as they can from people who watched the games but drawing concrete conclusions from them is a risky business.

I agree about the question marks over our defence - Lord knows we've gone through it enough on here - But lets give the team, with new faces and a new coach, enough time to get up and running in SL before judging them either way. Fans expectations need to be managed because we've undoubtedly got one of the weaker squads in SL.

If there are question marks about the defence it's up to Powell to sort them out. Clearly he would have noted what happened at the Skolars' match and this will have be re-iterated to him against Leigh. He now has two weeks to address the defensive frailities.

I don't know how big the lads are that you have still to come back but you were missing some size yesterday. A couple to soften us up in the middle and it could have been a totaly different score. Anyway all the best for the season.

Go to Blip.tv and type in Leigh Centurions v Harlequins' watch the game and make your own mind up.

cheers frankb.....that's my mornings work out the window

Blip TV not good viewing and we still seem rather soft in defence down the wings and worse than last year.

I'm the bloke behind the sticks in the flat cap

with the large " I love the RFL" banner?

Thats the one

couldn't tell if that one was you or if it was the guy with the "Richard Lewis is the Stephen Hawkin of Rugby League" one.............

...yeap...starbug would very much like to put Mr lewis in a chair methinx

Nick the Greek needs to sort his hands out.

Certainly does. Kicking game still looks poor too.

Nick the Greek dropped about 5 at Leigh and probably a similar number against Skolars. Powelly took him of at Leigh I noticed!

He was taken off and sent back on again so many times I lost count. Most of our interchanges seemed to feature him one way or the other. I think Rob Powell was doing it on purpose to wind up the PA announcer, who couldn't cope with "Kouparitsas" and gave us at least three different versions, all of them delivered with an uncertain stutter, before giving up altogether and only announcing the oncoming player when he came off for the final time.

On the face of it this was a pretty worrying display against a lower league side. My first thought was that we looked either seriously undercooked or seriously e! It was a game we could easily have lost after leading 24-6 during the first half; our lead was down to two points for much of the final quarter and overall we had the rub of the green from the officials in terms of questionable calls. If this had been a Challenge Cup match we'd have come away relieved just to be in the draw for the following round.

Apart from a couple of games with Skolars at the HAC this was the first Quins pre-season game I've seen, so I'm not sure how much to read into the performance. I've watched enough football pre-seasons to know that an apparently perfect build up can lead to a major flop in the first league game, and an apparently shambolic pre-season can be followed by everything miraculously clicking into place on the big day.

Perhaps a rather kind looking draw for the first two rounds of SL fixtures - two of the weaker looking sides, one on neutral soil and the other at home - has led to many of us placing too much emphasis on the importance of winning these particular games. It looks like we've been handed a golden opportunity to get four points from the first two fixtures. However, we have a new young coach and a lot of new players, many of them inexperienced and a few looking to prove a point after setbacks at previous clubs. It's going to take time for everyone to settle down and grow as a team, so logically we ought to be at our weakest and most vulnerable in the early games regardless of how well or otherwise pre-season has gone.

Trying to be realistic I'd like to think we can win more matches than last season and be more competitive and push our opponents closer in the games we don't win.

He dropped one in the first half that was so bad that several fans scurried off under the West Stand

I'm pretty sure it was 2008 when I saw Quins pre-season game at Celtic Crusaders. Crusaders were still in the Championship and they beat us comfortably. Having looked it up on the web we went on to win four of our first five Super League games that season. Similarly our big friendly win against Catalans (our first game as Quins) didn't lead to a championship season.

Friendlies need to be taken with a pinch of salt which I admit isn't always easy as we all like to see the side doing well.

Ahem ......



Well done on your impressive start. A welcome relief for some long suffering fans.

Thanks littlerich.

We are long suffering (a bit like yourselves).

But hey, you've got cheap beer oop norf and we ain't



Anyhoo, we've got the Mighty Dan Stains in common!

Indeed we have! His first ever tackle in a Fax shirt was the biggest hit I've ever seen in Rugby League. You could hear it from the stands.

Enjoy the start. All you need to do now is to get Gutterfax on board with the marketing and you're all set!

Ah, The Sainted Dan Stains (bless him). Wonder what he's doing now?
Wheres me genuflection smiley?



Good Luck for the season, littlerich. Would love to see the Mighty Fax back in SL where they belong/