Bedraggled Quins stars could be axed by Eddie
Supporting your club can be a stressful business, as London Irish fans well know, but not far behind them must surely be Harlequins supporters. Round 21 of the Premiership threw up some fascinating results, but what on earth was going on at Sixways when Quins were humiliated 44-13 by second-from-bottom Worcester Warriors?
Of course the Warriors had home advantage, and they’ve shown glimpses of form in recent weeks, but a look at the Quins starting XV makes the result nighon incomprehensible, and must raise serious questions about Eddie Jones’ selection policies.
This wasn’t some endof-season game where the Quins coaches decided, that with nothing to play for, they’d chuck in the kids and let the experienced players have an early holiday.
No, they started Mike Brown, Danny Care, Joe Marler, Kyle Sinckler, and Chris Robshaw, as well as Jamie Roberts, the wunderkind Marcus Smith, and England hopeful Joe Marchant. The rest of the team wasn’t too shabby either, so how can players of that quality and experiand ence concede seven tries against Worcester?
The question that must be in the forefront of Eddie Jones’ mind is whether those Quins players should still be in the frame for future England selection.
Playing ability is critical, but temperament plays its part too, and when you see a team with players of that quality under-performing as Quins have done, you have to wonder whether it isn’t time for a comprehensive clearing of the decks for England?
Things are clearly in turmoil at Quins, with John Kingston parting company with the club at the end of the season.
The new man coming in will presumably want his own team of coaches, and the reality is that he might have to compromise and keep some or all of Kingston’s men, the likes of Mark Mapletoft, Nick Easter, Nick Evans, Colin Osborne, Graham Rowntree, Adam Jones and Tony Diprose.
That isn’t a team that comes cheap, and what’s most astonishing is that it’s just over 100 days since three of them – Kingston, Mapletoft and Rowntree – had their contracts extended!
However you dress it up, that’s turned out to be a potentially shocking bit of business, and surely serious questions are being asked in the Harlequins boardroom about how the decision was made?
I’ve banged on for a long time about the need to have the TMO review every try, and I passionately believe we’d have more accurate results if that was to happen, but events in the Leicester v Newcastle match in Round 21 showed that while you can lead a horse to water, you can’t always make it drink!
It’s hard to imagine a more crucial set of circumstances with two clubs’ top four and top six positions on the line, and the final Falcons try was just plain unsatisfactory.
Watching it live it was clear that Luke Pearce blew his whistle to have a look at whether a try might have been scored, and immediately afterwards a Newcastle player dived through the ruck clearly grounded the ball. During the analysis, the TMO asked the question about when the whistle was blown, but shouldn’t he have been more forceful?
He asked Pearce, who said that he believed the whistle and score were more or less simultaneous, but that’s not how I, and many others, saw it.
This just goes to show what a nightmare officiating at the elite level can be, and I’d like to see TMOs becoming even more involved. It’s one thing to ask a question, but sometimes the TMO is the person best placed to know the answer. In this instance, if the TMO agreed with most people watching the TV coverage, that the whistle had gone before the ball was grounded, why didn’t he simply say that to Pearce?
The decision cost Leicester the chance of the play-offs, and put Newcastle in prime position to get there. But will we have the right four teams in the semi-finals?
■ Next weekend it’s the finals of the European Cups, and thankfully the two best refs around are taking charge. Wayne Barnes deservedly referees the Champions Cup, and Jerome Garces the appetizer. As that bloke on
Bargain Hunt used to say, we’re in safe hands!