Harlequins vs Exeter - Sat 17:15

[Mikey Brown]

Not sure why both sides are pretending to play their openside at 6, but fairly good teams given international duties?

Herbst and Evans is definitely a choice.

Harlequins

15David
14Murley
13Marchant
12Esterhuizen
11Bassett
10Smith
9Care
1Marler
2Head
3Louw
4Lamb
5Lewies
6Kenningham
7Chisholm
8Lawday

Substitutes

16Riley
17Baxter
18Kerrod
19Herbst
20Evans
21Wallace
22Steele
23Northmore

Exeter Chiefs

15Hodge
14Nowell
13Whitten
12Kata
11Woodburn
10Skinner
9Maunder
1Sio
2Innard
3Williams
4J Gray
5Jenkins
6Vermeulen
7Tshiunza
8Simmonds

Substitutes

16Yeandle
17Southworth
18Street
19Dunne
20Ewers
21Maunder
22Simmonds
23Hendrickson

I don’t know what’s happened to the formatting. No fucking way am I fixing that. Sorry.

[FKAS]

Wow Whitten at 13, if Marchant doesn't take advantage of his lack of pace then something is wrong.

Vermeulen won't be the Chiefs openside, Simmonds will be fulfilling that role from 8. Vermeulen and Tshiunza follow in the tradition of lock sized flankers for Chiefs.

[Stom]

Interesting that Quins backrow all have the 'wrong' numbers on, too...

[fivepointer]

Quins boosted by getting Smith back and in dire need o a win.

Exe helped by getting their international locks back.

No much in this, i reckon.

[twitchy]

Poor old whitten is looking like a grand dad. Amazing that he can still play honestly.

[Mikey Brown]

Jesus. I have literally no memory of creating this thread. Why is that even a thing that somebody does when they’ve browned out?

[p/d]

No much in this, i reckon.

………….

[oldbackrow]

BT Sport pulling all the stops out to get Marcus starting against France next week!

[Mr Mwenda]

Care could have given an ordinary pass for a fifth try there. Silly.

[Mr Mwenda]

Not that it matters!

[FKAS]

BT Sport pulling all the stops out to get Marcus starting against France next week!

Monye is his mate and Dayglo does like to jump on any passing bandwagon.

Smith has been great in attack but has fallen off some routine tackles. It's certainly been a statement performance from him and Quins though.

[oldbackrow]

Quins have been excellent in fairness.

[Stom]

BT Sport pulling all the stops out to get Marcus starting against France next week!

Monye is his mate and Dayglo does like to jump on any passing bandwagon.

Smith has been great in attack but has fallen off some routine tackles. It's certainly been a statement performance from him and Quins though.

I believe that, last season, Smith had a better tackle percentage than Farrell...don't quote me on that.

And, yes, I know that a few years ago, the international FH with the best tackle percentage was George Ford, but still. Your FH is for attack and to at least get the attacker down, not to make dominant tackles. St. Jonny ruined that for us all.

[Puja]

"So, Lawrence, who was your Player of the Match, and why was it Marcus Smith?"

Puja

[stepsider]

PoTM - but Borethwick will still pick OF

[stepsider]

But Smith's haircut is still shit

[fivepointer]

No much in this, i reckon.

………….

Yeah, what do i know!

Quins were very good. Sharp, energetic, creative and hard working. Exeter didnt really show up and looked flat footed by comparison.
Smith played perfectly well but the over the top praise from the commentators was hard to take.
In fact, it was hard to take Lawrence "Look at that" Dallglio's commentary at all. he was abject.

[Mellsblue]

Classy

[Oakboy]

I can't see Exeter becoming competitive again if they are fielding teams with that poor a standard at 2, 9, 10, 13.

[Puja]

Smith played perfectly well but the over the top praise from the commentators was hard to take.
In fact, it was hard to take Lawrence "Look at that" Dallglio's commentary at all. he was abject.

That game was the perfect example of why PotM is mostly worthless and people citing it as a reason for a player's selection are misguided. If Quins won, and Smith did at least something that they could vaguely use to justify it, he was guaranteed man of the match. Quite apart from the narrative of it, which the broadcaster loves, I'd imagine they checked with his representatives to confirm that he would be willing to give a decent length interview at the end of the game, which is also valuable to them.

He did play well, mind, but the only way he wasn't getting PotM today was if Quins had got thumped.

Still, at least it won't be actively harmful to his hopes of selection like it would've been under Eddie. Getting PotM and a media frenzy would've required him being sent back to club level permanently, because he needed to work on improving his hitch kick.

Puja

[Oakboy]

The whole point for me remains simple. Any advantage of having Smith at 10 is over-ridden by the disadvantage of having Farrell at 12. Either Smith can run the game on his own at 10 or we might as well stick with Farrell at 10.

I'm afraid I stand by my concern that we won't see the back of Farrell till a better FH than Smith or Ford emerges. I'd pick Ford and dump Farrell but I doubt any head coach will. Smith is not the answer.

[stepsider]

Smith played perfectly well but the over the top praise from the commentators was hard to take.
In fact, it was hard to take Lawrence "Look at that" Dallglio's commentary at all. he was abject.

That game was the perfect example of why PotM is mostly worthless and people citing it as a reason for a player's selection are misguided. If Quins won, and Smith did at least something that they could vaguely use to justify it, he was guaranteed man of the match. Quite apart from the narrative of it, which the broadcaster loves, I'd imagine they checked with his representatives to confirm that he would be willing to give a decent length interview at the end of the game, which is also valuable to them.

He did play well, mind, but the only way he wasn't getting PotM today was if Quins had got thumped.

Still, at least it won't be actively harmful to his hopes of selection like it would've been under Eddie. Getting PotM and a media frenzy would've required him being sent back to club level permanently, because he needed to work on improving his hitch kick.

Puja

You are entitled to your opinion. IMHO no one is guaranteed PoTM.

While you may dislike the commentators/reasoning on PoTM, this is generally awarded by players with many years' international experience (even if their commentaries occasionally grate). That accords it at least some merit.

Also, if Quins had scraped a win with Smith playing poorly and achieving Farrell's success percentages, I believe there's no way he'd have been PoTM.

[Spiffy]

But Smith's haircut is still shit

You have nailed it. If Smith got a proper Lancashire miner's haircut, like Faz and Ford; and gave up his silly little vertical bunny-hop, he'd be right in. Ekky-thoomp, t'lad's not got a happorth o' common sense.

[Stom]

For a change, Robert Kitson in the Granuiad made a good point.

If England want a fly-half who gives the roulette wheel a calculated spin, there is none better in the land. If they want someone to play the percentages and prioritise territory and a relentless kicking game, there are more pragmatic options available.

Considering what we've seen from Stevia Bandwidth so far, I would pick George Ford at FH in a heartbeat. It's that simple.

Then Smith would get the bench spot so he can change it up if needed, plus he's a better game manager than Farrell.

[Scrumhead]

100% agree with you. For the game plan we’re seeing Ford is the best man. While I don’t think anyone will knock Farrell out of the XV (sadly), Ford is also best placed to do it given he was Borthwick’s 10 for his biggest career success so far. He has Borthwick’s trust so if anyone is capable of it, he is.

Hopefully that opens up a spot for Smith to be the ‘game changer’ on the bench.