Harlequins v Sale Sharks Sunday 4^th May 3pm

Current Form

·        This should be a cracker with 2 teams separated by 1 league point going head to head at the Stoop on Sunday, the winning team having a very strong chance of making the Premiership play-offs.

·        Harlequins had a break last weekend but went down 13-7 at London Irish the week before. That defeat saw them drop to 4^th position, level on points with Wasps, 3 behind Bath and 6 behind Gloucester. With a visit to Leicester on the last day of the season, they are likely to miss out if they lose on Sunday.

·        Harlequins have played 10 matches at home this season, winning 8 and losing to Saracens and Leicester.

·        Sale were beaten 36-14 at Bath in the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup last Saturday and like Harlequins, really need to win on Sunday and in their last match at home to London Irish, if they are to make the play-offs.

·        They recorded their highest score of the season when they beat Newcastle 53-10 in the Premiership a week last Sunday and the bonus point victory leaves them in 5^th spot, only 1 point behind Harlequins and Wasps.

·        Sale have played 10 matches away from home this season, winning 4 and losing 6.   

History

·        Harlequins and Sale have met 23 times in the league since 1995.

·        Sale have the upper hand in this fixture winning 16 of the matches to the 6 of Harlequins with 1 game ending in a draw.

·        Of the 11 games played at the Stoop, Harlequins have won 5 and Sale 6.

·        Harlequins won the first game played at the Stoop 55-0 in 1996 and the last game played there in 2007, 49-0.

·        Sale have completed the league double against Harlequins 4 times.

·        Harlequins have never completed a league double against Sale.

·        Sale beat Harlequins 20-13 at Edgeley Park in January.

Trends and Trivia

·        Harlequins have won 12 matches from 20 played this season which is their best performance in the Premiership since 1998/99.

·        Harlequins have scored 26 tries at home this season. One more will see them score the most tries in a season on home soil since 1998/99

·        Harlequins have conceded the fewest points in the Premiership away from home this season, just 167 in 10 matches.

·        Extraordinarily, only relegated Leeds have conceded more points at home than the 219 by Harlequins in their 10 matches this season.

·        Harlequins and Leicester are the only two teams in the Premiership to have conceded more points at home this season than away from home.

·        Along with Gloucester, Harlequins have had the least number of penalties in the league converted against them this season, just 35 in 20 matches.

·        Adrian Jarvis has now scored 109 points for Harlequins this season and Chris Malone 99. Jarvis was also top scorer last season with 181 points.

·        Simon Keogh, Steve So’oialo and Ugo Monye have all scored 4 tries for Harlequins in the Premiership this season. Keogh was top tryscorer in 2003/04 with 5 and 2004/05 in National League One with 18. Ugo Monye led the way in 2002/03 with 9.

·        Mike Brown, Ceri Jones and Mike Ross have all played in Harlequins’ 20 Premiership matches this season.

·        Including their home game at Twickenham, Harlequins have averaged 13582 spectators this season. For the 9 home games played at the Stoop they have averaged 10713. Their best attendance at the Stoop was 12638 for the visit of Gloucester and their lowest crowd was 7459 against Leeds.

·        Sale have now won 13 matches from 20 played this season. One more win will see them win 14 and they have only beaten that total once in the last 10 years, when they won 18 from 24 in 2005/06 and finished as champions.

·        Sale have conceded the fewest number of points in the Premiership this season, just 341 in 20 matches.

·        They have only conceded 120 points in their 10 matches at Edgeley Park. This is easily their best ever defensive performance in the Premiership, previously 186 in 2004/05.

·        Sale have only conceded 32 tries in their 20 Premiership matches this season, including only 8 in their 10 home matches, both the best records in the division.

·        Charlie Hodgson is presently the leading points scorer in the Premiership with 188. He has previously been Sale’s top points scorer in 5 of the last 6 seasons, interrupted only by Braam Van Straaten in 2002/03. He has never before finished as the leading points scorer in the division though and Sale have never provided the leading points scorer.

·        Charlie Hodgson has played in 18 Premiership matches for Sale this season and has only failed to score in one match, against Leicester away.

·        Charlie Hodgson is the only one of this season’s top 6 point scorers not to have scored a try.

·        Ben Foden has only played in 13 of Sale’s 20 Premiership matches this season and he has now scored 8 tries, only one behind the league’s leading try scorers.

·        Oriol Ripol is the only Sale player to have appeared in 19 of their 20 Premiership matches this season.