Stoop to conquer

Miles Harrison says a team with title hopes, like Gloucester, needs to beat Quins on the road.

The Six Nations takes a break this weekend which means that the best place to catch your live rugby union action is on Sky Sports. We've got plenty of live Super 14 action for you and, as usual, a healthy helping of Guinness Premiership fare too. On Saturday afternoon Harlequins host Gloucester at The Stoop and Miles Harrison will be calling the shots. Here on skysports.com he previews all of the big games and he feels this weekend's match will be a good indication of both sides' credentials to make a challenge for this year's title. Just when we wondered whether Quins were going to drop out of the title race, they win back-to-back against Worcester and Saracens. Last week you said if they won at Saracens they would have to be considered as top four challengers. Having amassed 24 points at home this season and with a win on the road now at Sarries, can we call them genuine title contenders? MILES: We certainly will be if they beat Gloucester this weekend. 'Title contenders' is a bit strong but top four contenders? Yes, their points total suggests that they are. It was very dependent on that win last week and that win will do them the power of good. Whether they will make the top four is still up in the air - there are still big question marks - but if they win this weekend over Gloucester then you can start to say that they are a serious top four contenders again. Considering the run since the end of October, in which they had beaten only Worcester twice in 14 games before Saracens last week, that victory last weekend was very important for Quins. And it wasn't just the win but the manner of the win and that will have been so pleasing for Dean Richards and his coaching team. They are obviously making an effort to change the style and send the players out there to play some very attractive running rugby. In the first-half against Saracens they gave that coaching approach a ringing endorsement; the players lived up to what the coaches want to do. So it might be the style of the victory that will please Quins more than the points. Do you think the return of Adrian Jarvis to the fly-half position has had any bearing on Quins' change of fortunes? MILES: Not just Jarvis but his combination with Danny Care at half-back has been absolutely vital. Danny Care was made man of the match last week and rightly so, he was excellent. He is clearly a player to watch and will get better and better and has a great future in front of him. Jarvis is a little bit older and it seems, from the stands, that at times he doesn't have the total conviction and confidence of Care but what he does have is the desire to play. With every passing week he will get that confidence and conviction but he already wants to bring the best out of his back line and I think that is terrific. If these two can gel as a partnership and we see Jarvis grow and realise that the game that he wants to play is the game the team wants to play and that it will be an attractive, winning game, then that augurs well for him and Quins. I think the combination of Care and Jarvis at half back has been central to what Quins have been achieving in recent matches. Gloucester have picked up a point in every game going all the way back to December 2006 in the Premiership. That's some record isn't and a good indication of what Gloucester are trying to build? MILES: It shows they are a very difficult team to beat and if you are difficult to beat then you win a lot and you put 47 points up on the table. Gloucester are never going to be far away in any game they are playing but, having said that, since the turn of the year they have been beaten by Bath, Gloucester and Bristol. So while they are difficult to beat they have been on the wrong side of some close scorelines and Ospreys have beaten them too in Europe and that wasn't close. They are difficult to beat but beatable at the moment and that is what will be worrying Dean Ryan. He will have been relieved by the victory at Newcastle last week but that could easily have gone the other way too. It was a last-gasp victory that Gloucester managed to grab and in recent times they only beat Wasps by a point at home. Interesting times for Gloucester and, as with Saracens last week, we are about to find out if they are the real deal. They are further down the line than Saracens, closer in people's minds to a Premiership or European title, but are they there yet? These are the matches that will determine how good they are. If Gloucester are a top team and potential title winners then they need to go to Harlequins, regardless of their up-turn, and say 'we are the boss, the best and we are going to win this game well'. We get a lot of email here at skysports.com about two Gloucester players and their selection and non-selection for England. Many think that Iain Balshaw is lucky to still be in the England side and many more cannot understand why James Simpson-Daniel is continually overlooked. Where do you stand on this debate? MILES: I watched the England match with a number of English supporters at the weekend and their reaction was - to a man, to a woman - firstly one of delight that England had won and secondly that they hoped there would be changes made to the team despite the victory. I thought that was fascinating and the discussion centred primarily around full back Iain Balshaw. Obviously the miss of the high ball was quite a dramatic miss and for those who don't want to see him in the side it was something they will pluck out of the air - unlike Balshaw - to use in the argument against his inclusion. Equally those who would retain Balshaw would argue that his run and clearance from under his posts, when he ran away from French attackers and smacked a magnificent clearance to the half-way line, is evidence that despite one mistake he can do a job defensively. On the whole, during the Six Nations, Balshaw hasn't been at his best and therefore a coach who would tinker with a winning team, such as Warren Gatland, might make a change at full back for Scotland. Having said that Brian Ashton has always been a supporter of Balshaw and it will be interesting to see what he says about him next week and if he is included in the side. Questions will be asked by members of the media, on behalf of their own opinions but also those of their readers, the fans. And some of those opinions will be, on the evidence of form from the Guinness Premiership and Six Nations, that Josh Lewsey is in better form than Iain Balshaw. Now on the question of James Simpson-Daniel, I would say that he has been an "unlucky" player in the way that injury and illness have struck him at various stages of his career. There have been moments when you have felt that surely it was his time to cement an England place only for him to almost immediately be struck by injury. Having said that I have always been an admirer of his play and he is clearly a very talented rugby player and I am one of those who has been disappointed when he has not been involved in England squads over the years. He is a talent and he is in danger now of getting to that point of his career when he becomes a permanently overlooked talent, unless he is picked now. There is only room for 15 players in a rugby team with seven on the bench and, taking that into consideration, the players in his position, either on the wing or in the centre, are playing well. Jamie Noon and Toby Flood have been excellent recently and Mike Tindall is another centre that Gloucester fans would like to see involved. Mathew Tait didn't let England down in the World Cup and he too is waiting for his chance. On the wing Paul Sackey and Lesley Vainikolo offer different kinds of threats and behind them you have David Strettle - no one complained when he came straight back from injury - and he was looking very good before picking up another unfortunate injury against Wales. Fans at Leicester might suggest Tom Varndell, saying he is performing week-in, week-out, and you can throw Mark Cueto and others into the mix. It is very competitive and any view of Simpson-Daniel, saying he is a very good player, has to also take into account that there are other very good players out there also playing very well.