These are heady times at Harlequins. Fourteen wins on the bounce, by a long way the best start to a season by an English club, and on Friday night Toulouse are the visitors. Top of the Premiership versus top of the Top 14 and a chance that the traditional fortnight of back‑to‑back Heineken Cup rugby may kick off with an English win. Quins winning on the banks of the Garonne the following week is another matter.
First Harlequins must not be daunted by the aura that surrounds the French club. They may be the big moneybags of European rugby and they may be four‑times Heineken champions but, as Gloucester showed last month, if you get in their faces, they can be vulnerable. OK, Gloucester did not win but it took Clément Poitrenaud to make something from nothing for Toulouse to keep their home record. And Poitrenaud will not be around tonight at The Stoop.
The full-back, who can also play on the wing, and the massive South African prop Gürthro Steenkamp are facing long spells on the sidelines and even Toulouse's huge first-team squad is beginning to show a few holes. It has been one of their big strengths that, around half-time, they can replace a top-notch front row with three more Test players. But at the moment there are also doubts about the prop Census Johnston, who really looked to have lost a lot of weight for his World Cup campaign with Samoa, and the Argentinian lock Patricio Albacete, who is out for two months with a damaged ankle.
A lot will depend on the antipodean half-back pairing of Luke McAlister and Luke Burgess, who seems to have settled into Byron Kelleher's boots. The French like to run their games through their scrum-halves and Burgess was the architect of the win over Gloucester. With McAlister replacing David Skrela it looks as if Toulouse may be returning to a more open game.
With such a mighty pack and Skrela's boot their game tightened but I am beginning to see echoes of the way in which they played in 2004, which means that Harlequins may have to be more compact in defence. In the 2004 Heineken final at Twickenham Wasps were being cut to shreds by the Toulouse offloading game. So we condensed the defence, to double-team their big ball carriers.
Toulouse's record over here is less than perfect – they had to come from well behind to win at The Stoop two seasons ago – and Harlequins' defence has impressed this season. But Quins will need their young backs to have an inspired evening. If they can put their stamp on Friday night's game and play it the way they want, they could go to France as leaders of Pool Six.
Continuing the England v France theme, a guy who was really impressive for Wasps in their big Heineken campaigns was the fly-half Alex King, who is now becoming a coach of some influence down at Clermont Auvergne. Alex was one of those players Wasps used to wheel out on the big occasions. He may not have caught the limelight or received the headlines but Rob Howley rated him as the best leader he had played under, so it is no surprise that Vern Cotter, one of those who have put their hand up for the New Zealand coaching job, seems to like what Alex is doing.
On Sunday Alex will be locking horns with Leicester again. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with in a match where a bonus point for Leicester would probably be a good result. Stade Marcel-Michelin may not be as austere as it once was but 18,000 there make a lot of noise and they have been raising the roof recently. Clermont and Toulouse have been pulling further ahead of third-placed Castres.
Without Alesana Tuilagi, the Leicester backline might look a little lightweight against players such as Aurélien Rougerie and the recently arrived All Black wing Sitiveni Sivivatu.
In the same way the four-week ban given to Chris Ashton may be the final nail in the Heineken coffin for Northampton, who play in one of the Anglo-French matches sandwiched between Harlequins on Friday night and Leicester on Sunday.
Northampton are in Castres which, like Clermont, is one of those towns where rugby is the beating heart and where they like nothing more than fielding a hefty pack spiced up with a few imports such as their captain, the former All Black Chris Masoe. Without Ashton Northampton may lack the cutting edge needed to keep their campaign alive – but, if you appreciate scrummaging, this is the game for you.
