Quins boss hoping for European boost
Harlequins boss Conor O’Shea hopes the start of the new European Rugby Champions Cup will ignite his side’s season.
Quins’ erratic start to the campaign continued on Friday as they went down 22-16 at Leicester, just six days after they recorded their biggest ever Premiership win – a 52-0 thrashing of London Welsh.
O’Shea immediately turned his attention from their third domestic league loss to Europe’s elite competition, starting with French side Castres at the Twickenham Stoop on Friday.
“It has been a tough start and we have not played the way we can,” O’Shea said.
“We want to make sure that we bring our proper form to Castres at home.
“We know we will have a Stoop that will be rocking and that will be a massive way to kick the Champions Cup off. We want to kick it off in style.
“We have a month off now from the Aviva Premiership and we just want to get stuck into it.
“You work so hard to get into the Champions Cup and we will work hard to get into the Champions Cup and beyond for next year.”
With just one meaningful attack at Welford Road, scrum-half Karl Dickson ran in Quins’ only try to help secure a losing bonus point.
Dickson had come in as a last-minute replacement for England international Danny Care, whose partner gave birth on Friday morning.
The loss also came at a cost, with hooker Joe Gray helped off with a leg injury.
O’Shea admitted their failure to seriously trouble a Tigers side that had lost three games straight was particularly frustrating.
“People are feeling pretty sorry for themselves,” he said.
“You don’t mind losing, but you mind losing when you don’t give the best account of yourself – that is what hurts more than anything.”
However, O’Shea could take solace in a rare highlight as Matt Hopper helped limit the damage with a brilliant tackle to deny Niki Goneva in the corner after England full-back Mike Brown made a mess of a high first-half kick.
“It wasn’t though a lack of effort that we lost, I would never question that,” said O’Shea.
“We want to play the way we can and know we are not doing it at the moment, but we will work until we do.”
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