Harlequins v Saracens

OldRio

I see that Peter Stringer is making his first start today for Sarries.
First against Second in the Aviva Premeirship.
Might be worth a watch.
The match is been played at Twickenham and they are expecting a crowd of over 80000.

wixfjord

Looking forward to this actually.
Think Sarries could have too much forward power for Quins, who I think will be found out by a bigger pack one of these days. Smit and Stevens on the bench too, but interesting to see that Smit is the prop replacement.

Teams:

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Tomas Vallejos, 3 James Johnston, 2 Chris Brooker, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Tim Fairbrother, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Luke Wallace, 21 Richard Bolt, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Tom Williams.

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 David Strettle, 13 Owen Farrell, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 James Short, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Ernst Joubert, 7 Andy Saull, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 George Kruis, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 John Smit, 18 Matt Stevens, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Jackson Wray, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Adam Powell, 23 Chris Wyles.

Colm_OReilly

That's my afternoon sorted, thanks for the heads up!

almighty1

Thanks, forgot about this game. Two of the best teams in the Premiership. Brits must be one of the best hookers playing in the NH, fantastic in the loose.

Quins by 8 though.

Benny Cake

Strange seeing Strings in a Saracens shirt... Delighted for the man though, he probably wouldn't have started for Munster last night & here he is playing in front of 82k people in Twickenham!!

wixfjord

Benny Cake wrote: »

Strange seeing Strings in a Saracens shirt... Delighted for the man though, he probably wouldn't have started for Munster last night & here he is playing in front of 82k people in Twickenham!!

I've a feeling that strings is not half the player he was. Will be interesting to see.

Benny Cake

wixfjord wrote: »

I've a feeling that strings is not half the player he was. Will be interesting to see.

So far so good from him... TBH I think he will perform quite well for a few more seasons. He is in excellent physical condition and doesn't rely on power or speed with ball in hand.. He's all about the pass!

wixfjord

Benny Cake wrote: »

wixfjord wrote: »

I've a feeling that strings is not half the player he was. Will be interesting to see.

So far so good from him... TBH I think he will perform quite well for a few more seasons. He is in excellent physical condition and doesn't rely on power or speed with ball in hand.. He's all about the pass!

That's part of the reason why I think he's not the player he was. The game has moved on and a solid scrummie is no longer a plus. His kicking hasn't been great so far and that snappy pass isn't what it used to be, we've seen evidence of that for Munster. Suits sarries game though.

copacetic

He has looked ok, their game seems to suit him, that's 7 box kicks I've counted so far from him in 21 mins, 4 of them leading to penalties?

thomond2006

Try Quins

GerM

Very mixed game from Evans. Does something great and then does something silly every few minutes. Unlike him.

wixfjord

Stringer off at 60. Mixed some standard with at least three awful mistakes.
Turning into good game.

GerM

Quins will be disappointed with this. They needed to get the scoreboard moving after the try. Too many visits to Sarries 22 and coming away with nothing. Controlled most of the game but an intercept try and sloppy start to the game have killed them. Saracens have defended excellently though and took their opportunities. 19 points in 15 minutes and put their bodies on the line.