Joe tells Quins to shape up or ship out
LAUNCHBURY WARNING AFTER BATH CLOSE CALL
JOE LAUNCHBURY has urged Harlequins to ditch their Jekyll-and-Hyde tag or face a European exit on Friday.
The second-row was part of a Quins side who nearly threw away a 40-3 lead against Bath on Saturday before getting home 40-36.
The weekend’s results left the Londoners still in the playoff hunt but this weekend they switch focus to the Champions Cup and a last-16 tie against Glasgow Warriors at the Twickenham Stoop.
Franco Smith’s Glasgow are flying high in second in the URC and are packed with Scotland stars such as centre Huw Jones and backs-rows Jack Dempsey and Rory Darge. They limbered up for Friday’s clash with a 45-3 hammering of Scarlets in Wales.
Lock Launchbury, who had been replaced in Saturday’s match by the time the horror show unfolded, warned: “In terms of a blueprint for us, we know when we get things right, we can compete with anyone, but we have also learnt the hard way that if we are a little bit off we can fall short.
“It makes the next few weeks really important. We have got quite a nice trajectory in the next few weeks and have worked extremely hard to get ourselves into a knockout game in Europe, which we are going to take seriously.
“We talked a lot about how close as a squad we can be and we started that game in the right way – some of the stuff in the first half was as good as we can be, we were really clinical.
“The second half was probably just a great advert for Premiership Rugby. It is a crazy thing, momentum, and we just about got across the line.”
Beat Glasgow on Friday and Quins would face Saracens or Bordeaux-Begles in the quarter-finals the following week before the Premiership slog resumes. A trip to Sale, hosting Northampton at Twickenham and clashes with Exeter and Bristol are next on the menu as Quins seek to emulate the class of 2021 and claim the league title. At 32, Launchbury has been involved in every Premiership and European game this campaign. ❑LEICESTER have paid a fine of almost £50,000 after exceeding the salary cap in the 2019-20 season. Tigers went over the wages limit by £47,136.91, and CEO Andrea Pinchen said: “We accept the findings.”