Horwill on how slow-starting Quins are finally finding their feet
After stunning Saracens, Australian lock now has his sights on Wasps and Cipriani, says Steve James
There we were last Saturday, muttering about how flaccid Harlequins looked this season, how they were already destined to be among the also-rans, when word spread that they were beating Saracens. I say “word” because most of us correspondents were not at the Twickenham Stoop. Northampton v Wasps looked much more attractive, and it did indeed have its attractions, but the shock of the day was Quins’ success over the double champions.
“It was a good performance after a couple of weeks on the road when we did not play as we wanted to,” admits Australia lock James Horwill.
Both parts of that sentence are huge understatements. Any team who beat Saracens have to be a lot better than “good”, and losing away at Sale and getting thumped at Exeter (having only scraped through against Bristol in the season’s opener) are a lot worse than just not playing as desired. In short, Quins had been shocking.
Some harsh words were said. “We had some honest chats about what we needed to do and the mentality was right against Saracens,” says Horwill. Basically they needed to front up physically and do some hard graft first, before trying the fancy wide stuff, which has been a big part of the club’s modus operandi in the last few years. “We have been trying to implement a few things and it was about developing belief in the group. In the past, we had a way that we wanted to play and were perhaps a bit stubborn in that. We had soft moments and needed to get that out of our game. We still want to move the ball and have an up-tempo game, but we have to get the core parts right, winning collisions and being good at the breakdown and set-pieces.
“Graham Rowntree [former England forwards coach] has been a big part of trying to push our set-piece on. Adam Jones [former Wales prop] is doing a bit of coaching and helping our young tight-heads in the dark arts. The conditions here mean you have to work on your scrum.”
Not that Horwill, who joined Quins last year and has won 62 caps for the Wallabies, is complaining. “I am glad I made the move to England and have really enjoyed it. When I started playing rugby, my ambition was to play overseas at some point, and the Premiership is a tough, physical competition I relish playing in.”
The secret to beating Saracens is to strike early. If you can establish a decent lead, as Quins did in going 17-0 up, they do not chase well. “We made sure we stuck to what we intended to do,” Horwill says. “We knew we had to improve individually and collectively, having only played well in patches. We slackened off against Exeter and let in some soft tries.”
And that is where the challenge will come in spades this afternoon at Wasps, the only unbeaten team in the league, with the most deadly attacking threat. “Wasps remind me of New Zealand Super Rugby teams in the way they like playing off fractured ball,” says Horwill. “If you are loose against them, they will hurt you on the counter-attack. They hunt the ball off the ground and they feed off mistakes.
“Danny Cipriani is a challenge for opponents. I played against him in Super Rugby when he was in Melbourne and he has a lot of natural ability.” Ah, good old Danny. Everybody is talking about him.
“Every game we play seems to be about Danny, really, which is a little bit unfair on the other players,” says Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young.
And he is right. Wasps have any number of players you can talk about. Horwill knows that. Quins know that. They can only hope everyone is talking about them rather than those Wasps come this evening.