Harlequins boss rules out ever using B-team for Champions Cup ahead of Croke Park showdown
Harlequins face Leinster in the Champions Cup at Croke Park this weekend. Quins head coach Danny Wilson described Leinster as "very rounded and dangerous". Pic: Michael Steele/Getty Images
Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson has served notice of his side’s intentions against Leinster in Croke Park this weekend by insisting the Premiership club would never consider fielding a second-string team for a Champions Cup encounter.
The competition has been beset by a proliferation of clubs opting to use B-teams in recent seasons, both in the pool stages and in the knockout rounds. The result has been the dilution of a once-great and much-loved tournament.
Many has been the French team guilty of paying lip service to ‘European’ games on the road. The South Africans have cited punishing logistical issues for sacking off games since their introduction. Even Ulster sent a hollowed-out squad to Toulouse this season.
Saracens will travel to Toulon this week for their round of 16 match without the services of their top England players due to player welfare rules and the stipulation that Steve Borthwick’s main men must sit out one of the first three club weekends post-Six Nations.
Their Test contingent was already employed in the past fortnight for domestic dates against both Harlequins and Leicester Tigers. Wilson, by way of contrast, rested his three returning Red Roses – Marcus Smith, Fin Baxter and Chandler Cunningham-South – for that Sarries game.
His reasoning was simple: the Six Nations places enormous demands on players – physical, mental and emotional – and they need time to decompress before returning to the day job. Baxter, for instance, used the time to clear his head with some walking in the Lake District.
Still, it’s an interesting path Wilson has chosen given the Twickenham club sits only as high as seventh and four points off fourth place in the ‘Prem’. Only the top four will progress to the end-of-season playoffs, and there are just five rounds left to play.
“I can’t see us ever at Harlequins putting, what do you want to call it, a second team out in a Champions Cup game,” said Wilson. “That’s disrespecting what the competition is. It’s an exciting competition that we want to be part of and do ourselves justice.
“Having said that, we have to manage our squad because the three games we have had coming back: Saracens away, Bath away, Leinster away… We haven’t had a home game in three weeks so a lot of challenges, a lot of physical, confrontational games.”
Quins were without ten players for last week’s defeat at The Rec. Alex Dombrandt was one of them and may yet feature in the pack in Dublin. Rodrigo Isgro, the Argentine wing, is following HIA protocols following a head injury picked up in the West Country.
Wilson also spoke about ‘growing the squad’ this week but, whatever the selection policy for Leinster and this round of 16 match, it certainly worked when they claimed that superb ‘away’ win against Saracens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last month.
Resting his England trio for that one prompted some sharp criticism beforehand. There were similar reservations 12 months ago when he omitted the experienced duo of Danny Care and Joe Marler from the side that then beat Bordeaux Begles in France.
That 42-41 quarter-final win at the Stade Chaban-Delmas was equal parts stunning and surprising but, with Northampton Saints letting Leinster off the hook at GAA HQ in a subsequent semi-final, there are grounds for optimism for the English visitors here.
The phrase ‘swing the bat’ was the slogan used for that win in Bordeaux. That isn’t being adopted this time around but Wilson and his players will again lean into the notion of being an underdog with nothing to lose and with recent big away wins under their belts.
Leinster present their own threat, not least a “very aggressive” Jacques Nienaber defence that is radically different from the more joined-up and patient rearguard that was employed before the arrival of the World Cup-winning South African.
The worry for the hosts is that their attack just isn’t clicking in the way it had in seasons gone by. Ireland’s difficulties with ball in hand this last few months, with a team that featured 21 Leinster men through the Six Nations, only speaks louder for those fears.
Wilson was reluctant to delve too deeply into an opponent's weak or strong points for public consumption before they cross paths, but he did make the point that any team looking for greater return from one aspect of their game inevitably has to spend more time at it.
“They are a very rounded team. Let’s be honest, how many Ireland players is it? It’s a ridiculous representation of internationals that play every week in the Six Nations. It’s a quality, quality outfit and they recruit well on top of that.
“Pretty all-court team, very rounded and dangerous.”
