Nick Evans' help us plea to refs as quickfire Quins are too sharp

P59

7 January 2013

Harlequins fly-half Nick Evans has called on referees to be sympathetic to the Premiership leaders’ desire to play quick rugby but warned against alienating the men with the whistle ahead of the next fortnight’s crucial Heineken Cup pool matches against Connacht and Biarritz.

Both teams collected a bonus point in Quins’ win over London Welsh in Oxford yesterday, with pace the key as Danny Care scored the first of the champions’ four tries with a sharp break from a ruck. The second came from a quickly taken line-out and Care made the third for Chris Robshaw with a tapped free-kick.

But Care was foiled from setting up another first-half score when referee Llyr Apgeraint-Roberts called the England scrum-half back for not taking a tap from the correct mark.

Apgeraint-Roberts’ all-round display was criticised by Quins’ director of rugby Conor O’Shea in a fierce rant against the standard of Premiership refereeing and Evans, whose second-half try helped him to 16 points, said: “Danny’s the best in the business with quick taps and he knows where to take them from. He’s been around the track a long time.

“The thing with us is that teams understand we try and play with a high tempo and they’ll try and stop that. And that’s fine — but it’s up to the officials to police that and reward good play.

“Maybe we need to react a little better if calls aren’t going our way. Some referees are going to be better than others and we have to react to that.

“They are in charge and it’s up to Robbo [captain Chris Robshaw] to maybe influence them a bit. We just need to be careful that we don’t turn them against us because when we come up against the really good teams in the Heineken Cup that could be the difference between winning and losing.

“The best way to deal with it is for us to be more accurate and more physical at the ruck. We won’t go away from our style of play.”

Rested first-choices Mike Brown, Ugo Monye and Mo Fa’asavalu are likely to return against Connacht at The Stoop on Saturday when one point for Harlequins will see them into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. The Premiership table looks good for London Welsh, 10 points clear of bottom club Sale.

The Exiles’ next league match is at Leicester on February 9 followed a week later by the home meeting with Sale in which a win for Welsh would surely see them safe from relegation.

They return to Amlin Challenge Cup and LV Cup action, initially against I Cavalieri on Saturday. When and where Gavin Henson will take part is open to question. Welsh’s head coach Lyn Jones said he had seen the former Wales centre, who has not played since November, on the eve of the defeat by Wasps nine days ago, and Henson was optimistic his calf injury would clear up for him to face Quins.

By last Wednesday, the situation had changed. “Unfortunately his leg wasn’t good enough, so that’s it, we’ll keep a welcome in the hillside for him,” said Jones, with a hint of evasiveness.

“If players want to get picked in the Aviva Premiership they have an opportunity [in the cups] to play and perform and Gav will be one of them.” It is understood Henson was excused from attending Kassam Stadium yesterday.

Former Scotland captain Mike Blair has retired from international rugby. Scotland’s most-capped scrum-half, 31, has represented his country 85 times, 14 of them as captain. He said: “I’m in the position of being able to decide myself when my international career ends. For me, that’s now.”

Nick Evans' help us plea to refs as quickfire Quins are too sharp

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