The fantastic Huw Jones try last week rekindled a thought that's rattled around since last season.
I think that every time I've seen Marcus receive a pass that bounced before it reached him, he's turned it into a try scoring opportunity. There seems to be something about the loose ball that causes defences to pause, and in the extra moment he has to read the situation he seems to find some of his most creative options - the kick pass to Marchant, the hitch kick to draw the Exeter defenders before releasing Lynagh in the final.
I'm not sure any sane coach would advocate deliberately throwing bad passes to a fly half, but I can't help wondering what would happen if he kept receiving the occasional loose bouncing pass.
The Quins attack is based around challenging defensive systems and introducing a moment of hesitation that Marcus can exploit. The bouncing ball does that because it's unexpected: teams aren't primed to respond to it and it tends to mean that he's coming at them from an unexpected position and angle.
I'm wondering how the team could replicate that in a more structured manner. One that Quins use a decent amount is to have the fly half loop around to take the ball back having passed it, giving them a different angle and more space to get it wide. I wonder what else they can do?
