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'A good man lost his job last week and since then there has been a lot written about the club'

By PA
Danny Care /PA

Harlequins and England scrum-half Danny Care admitted his side needed a reaction after the sudden departure of their head of rugby Paul Gustard less than a fortnight ago.

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They certainly provided one with an impressive 49-17 win over an out-of-sorts Wasps at the Ricoh Arena.

Quins ran in five tries through Will Evans, Danny Care, Alex Dombrandt, Louis Lynagh and James Lang. There was also a penalty try award, while man of the match Marcus Smith kicked three penalties and four conversions.

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England & France Pre Six Nations press conference | Six Nations 2021 |

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England & France Pre Six Nations press conference | Six Nations 2021 |

Zach Kibirige and Tom Willis scored Wasps’ tries and Jimmy Gopperth converted both, with Lima Sopoaga adding a penalty.

Care said: “A good man lost his job last week and since then there has been a lot written about the club, so we needed to bounce back.

“We needed a reaction and we decided to put an emphasis on ball in hand. It was important that our big boys Alex Dombrandt, Andre Esterhuizen and Joe Marler got us over the gain line and they succeeded in doing so, which made it a lot easier for us to keep the ball alive.

“We’ve let ourselves down over the past few years and we are all responsible for our failings but today was a good start. But one swallow doesn’t make us a top team.”

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In contrast it was a miserable day to be a Wasp as they came back down to earth after five consecutive wins which saw them average 34 points per match.

In their last outing they racked up over 50 points in a try-fest at Bath but here in a lacklustre performance they were on the receiving end by nearly conceding 50.

They badly missed the power of Joe Launchbury and Jack Willis up front but behind the scrum the absence of scrum-half Dan Robson and rising star Paolo Odogwu was more keenly felt as their attacks were pedestrian and they had to rely on their forwards to create their two tries.

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett said: “It was a really bad day at the office. I wasn’t expecting that as I thought that after a sluggish start to the season, we had been on the way up in our most recent fixtures.

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“We were off the pace and second best in every area. It’s very frustrating and I sincerely hope that we will get a reaction next week.

“We don’t become a bad team overnight but we will have to have a keen look at why we performed like that but Quins were outstanding on the day.

“We always want players to reach their full potential by playing international rugby and that’s always been our philosophy and whilst they are away we focus on the progress of the next group.”

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J
JW 17 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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