For me, there are two areas to work on.
The fitness levels are not right. Hence the decline at 60 minutes.
The teamwork is not there.
So, get the team running up and down the stands for a while and then organise some team building activities
I rather feared that would be the result. We were absolutely hammered 😢 yes the scoreline made it look worse than it was worth the late scores but we only had 1 or 2 chances and we fluffed them. Earle was dreadful, Botta was possibly worse.... Our kicking game was dreadful, kick chase didn't work, hardly ever found grass, scrum was better with Kerrod, line out worked well in attack and defence. Hard to be too critical of our defence against the pick and goo when so many other clubs can't defend it either.
Average coach average mid table team.End of.
Care and Brown in decline.
We can expect the standard mixed bag of performances-that’s the Harlequins way!
Before the game, I expected nothing. Players missing or not that Exeter side is still the best in the league, however.......that was very very frustrating.
Defensively, I thought we were ok. Mistake for the first try but that aside we were solid. All the problems really started through penalties, we know what Exeter can do from the LO, they do it for fun. Our maul defence in general is not great so, DONT KEEP GIVING AWAY STUPID PENS!!! Stop that and the issue of our maul defence does not matter as much.
Attack was what puzzled me tbh. If the plan is to kick, you need to execute it much much better. Very poor kicking last night. When we do run, there seems to be no flat passing into runners, its all backwards to players standing still. We are giving the defence too much time to set. We attack on the back foot. Is this Nevs area??
PG has a lot of thinking to do. Hes not the only one. I still cant say I have seen any improvement from the scrum since Jones has been involved. LO puzzles me a bit also. We had a go at their LO early on and it seemed to go ok, then we stopped!! The coaches at fault for the game plan, the players at fault for the execution. The result will not define our season, but it was a pretty underwhelming start
Re Care, agree that he prob should have come off. I would say there is depth there but yesterday we had 1 SH injured, 1 on int duty and 1 who has not arrived. 5th choice chap on the bench, yet to play a single min, tbh it was unlikely he would get on.
Northmore and Esturheizen both had decent games for me, not sure why some think not? Earle was poor, as was Botta (which is a shame, as after the restart he was playing well). Not a fan of Young, tried to be optimistic but he is just not a Prem lock for me. Dombrandt was quiet, totally outplayed by Simmonds. I dont think we will see him near the England side for a while
Slightly off topic but hey. Watching last night (and looking at the squad as a whole), we have no real out and out pace. We have a few players that can shift a bit, but no rubbish of a shovel types like Walker. Not that it means much, just an observation. In general I always remember us having a some real pace, OLH, Walker, Old Chisholm (when he was younger) as the recent ones
The most depressing thing for me is that Gussie is quoted as saying after the game in the Tel. ‘That was s... we thought before the match that we had a very good game plan’
Thought issue for us was in attack...the key axis of 8-9-10 had indifferent games for there level of ability.
I think people are being harsh on front five. Earle still looks off the pace since his 12 months plus out of the game. Before his knee he was a star. He will get this back!
Let’s see how we do against others, let’s not base a team’s performance against Exeter when we are no where near this team at the moment and let’s be honest not many clubs are!
Forget scoreline as it not not a 30 point drubbing performance.....
First thing Monday morning before he puts his boots on Botta must be sent to a corner to write out 100 lines. "When I'm on the ground I'm out of the game".
Botta and Baldwin are deeply underwhelming for the number of international caps they have. And Louw did little but lean on rucks all night. Our starting front row was really not great.
My assessment - for what worth.
Exeter brutally efficient. Attractive? Not sure. In parts, yes. But every member of their team knew there role. Well trained. Few mistakes. When the opportunities came, they took them
Quins played well in first half. Don't seem to have the togetherness of Exeter. Not so well organised. Kicking was at times brilliant. At times, pretty aimless. Above all, too many mistakes and gave away too many penalties. Frustrating, particularly when they worked so hard to get into the good areas of the pitch.
Bristol now seem to be the team playing the old Harlequins way. Exeter, Saracens and Wasps all have a level of "dog" and efficiency to be competing at the top. Sale getting there quickly. Quins have a lot still to do!
Botta and Baldwin are deeply underwhelming for the number of international caps they have. And Louw did little but lean on rucks all night. Our starting front row was really not great.
Weird comment to make about a guy who put in the best counter ruck of the night. He was clearly up for it.
On Northmore - there's a good player in there, he's just really callow and having to defend in the most difficult position. Ideally we'd be able to give him another year of developing in his own time.
Botta and Baldwin are deeply underwhelming for the number of international caps they have. And Louw did little but lean on rucks all night. Our starting front row was really not great.
Totally agree.
I was not surprised by the defeat or even by the result, this is the team we have and I believe that it cannot offer much more, at least with first tier teams.
If Smith every time he has the ball kick far in the nothing at 40 meters, I think it is an order of play given by Gustard ditto for Care, I don't believe they take and we do everything on their own. Among other things, I did not understand why Smith is always at least 10 meters away from the ruck when he receives the ball. We practically never attack.
There would be many things to write but the things to say are always the same, we always rely on individual the play and then hopefully something will happen.
Gustard is certainly confused, but It's not the only problem. It takes at least 5/6 players of a good level, otherwise we are always at the same point.
I'm sorry for Brown, but after the injury he's not what he used to be.
Earle is absent too many times, but like him many other players.
We have the most terrible maul defence I have ever seen.
I find strange to have 5 scrum half, and 5 for the back row.
I hope that against the Saints we can see something better, and begin to understand where to start to build a decent team at least.I've read that some people think we can finish in the top 4 .... judging from a match just maybe it's too early, but I see it as very unlikely.
In Europe I hope to be wrong, but I was predicting heavy defeats.
Robshaw misses a lot both as a player and as a leadership.
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