Harlequins v Glasgow Warriors - teams and prediction
FRIDAY PREVIEW: The Champions Cup Round of 16 kicks off on Friday with a mouth-watering tie at Twickenham Stoop between Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors.
Ordinarily, you’d back the home side, but things aren’t so straightforward at Harlequins at the moment.
A fortnight ago at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, this year’s EPCR Finals venue, they were shredded 7-52 by Saracens.
Then last weekend, although they charged into a 40-3 lead within 50 minutes against Bath, they went from flawless to feckless in half an hour, almost contriving to throw that entire lead away.
Glasgow Warriors, by contrast, have been steadier. They were scintillating when smashing Scarlets 45-3 in Llanelli last weekend but needed to show a much steelier side in beating Cardiff 17-13 in Scotland the week before.
It was the same steely side that saw them triumph 12-11 at Aviron Bayonnais in the pool stage, a result which set them on their way to qualification.
So which Harlequins will turn up?
The one who steamrollered Cardiff 54-15 in Wales or the one who were crushed 19-47 at home by Stade Toulousain? The one who sliced and diced Bath or the one who almost let a 37-point lead go in the same game?
“We had a great start to the game in the first half, but we switched off in the second half and it almost came back to bite us. We’re happy to get the result in the end,” said Harlequins back Tyrone Green after the Bath game.
“We know that we let them off in that second half. We can’t do that in big games.
“We know what we want to achieve in both competitions [Premiership and Champions Cup], so for us, it’s building off this, [playing well] for 80 minutes not 40 minutes and if we can get that performance, we know we can get the result we want.”
Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith told his players to lift their standards still further for the trip to London.
“We are looking forward to keeping on improving and with Harlequins next, it is going to be an important test for us,” he told the Scotsman.
“Europe is going into a stage that feels like a final, which is a bit different to where the URC [United Rugby Championship] is currently.
“There’s going to be a do-or-die match to be played and we will have to lift our standard once again.
“I’m happy with the win [against Scarlets], but there are still a lot of things that we can improve on which makes it fantastic.”
Prediction:
@rugby365com: Glasgow Warriors by three points
Teams:
Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Will Evans, 6 Stephan Lewies (captain), 5 George Hammond, 4 Irne Herbst, 3 Will Collier, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Fin Baxter
Replacements: 16 Sam Riley, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Will Trenholm, 21 Tom Lawday, 22 Max Green, 23 Cameron Anderson
Glasgow Warriors: 15 Josh McKay, 14 Kyle Steyn (captain), 13 Stafford McDowall, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Kyle Rowe, 10 Tom Jordan, 9 George Horne, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Max Williamson, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Johnny Matthews, 1 Nathan McBeth
Replacements: 16 Gregor Hiddleston, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Lucio Sordoni, 19 Sintu Manjezi, 20 Ally Miller, 21 Henco Venter, 22 Jamie Dobie, 23 Duncan Weir
Date: Friday, April 5
Venue: Twickenham Stoop
Kick-off: 20.00 (20.00 GMT)
Referee: Tual Trainini (France)
Assistant Referees: Ludovic Cayre (France), Flavien Hourquet (France)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)
Source: @ChampionsCup
