If ever there is a team who specialise in making their own luck it is Harlequins. The question is whether the Houdinis of English club rugby can once again conjure enough of it to ensure another stirring chapter in their eventful modern history. Because if Saracens go 28-0 up in the first half of Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership semi-final, as Bristol famously did at the same stage last year, a magical comeback is simply not going to happen.
It does not require a genius, either, to sense how motivated Saracens are to re-enter the winners’ circle after three years of tumult. Which puts the onus on the defending champions to respond accordingly: all the usual crowd-pleasing tricks and sleight of hand but allied to the consistent control and bristling physicality that the best sides display. An acid test of the champions’ mettle, in other words, is coming over the hill.
Which makes it all the more interesting to listen to Quins’ players this week and to detect not an ounce of fear or trepidation. Talk, for example, to the club’s recently crowned player of the season, Cadan Murley, and the inner confidence in the Quins’ dressing room feels almost tangible. “We believe we can go back to back and that’s the most exciting thing,” insists the 22-year-old, almost matter of factly. “That belief is still there.”
The power of positive thinking is clearly still fuelling pretty much everything Quins do. Murley shares a house in Guildford with the England fly-half Marcus Smith and tells a revealing story about his friend’s demeanour prior to last year’s final against Exeter. “I remember we were leaving the house for the final and Marcus saying: ‘Today’s going to be a good day. I can feel it.’ Then he went out and won it. On game day you can just see that spark in his eye. He’s just got that belief that he can go out there, pull the strings and lead us to a win. I get to see a lot of him and he definitely has the same belief he had last year.”
Of course it will not be straightforward opposite the steely Owen Farrell, whom Smith will probably start alongside in midfield on England’s summer tour to Australia. But Quins, from their perspective, reckon they might just have a couple of small but significant advantages over their fierce London rivals. For a start they are the only side left in the playoffs who featured in the last four a year ago. A warm, sunny day would also suit the kind of fast, furious contest they prefer.
Anyone who witnessed the European try of the season at Quins’ last-16 home fixture against Montpellier in April knows what they can do when the muse is with them. Call it telepathy or simply collective intuition but Murley instinctively knew what he had to do the moment Danny Care acrobatically kept the ball infield by the touchline inside his own 22.
“As soon as Danny kept that ball in and got it into Marcus’s hands I thought: ‘I need to be alive here.’ They had their forwards spread out over the pitch and there wasn’t a solid chase line because they’d been expecting the line-out. Marcus licks that up. I was ready and managed to get on the end of his pass to put Joe Marchant away. Who now gets all the accolades for it.”
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL TRY!! 😍
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) April 16, 2022
Excellent work from Danny Care to keep it in, then Marcus Smith sets off like a rocket! Playing in Cadan Murley who plays in Joe Marchant for the try! 🔥
Sensational rugby from @Harlequins! 💫#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/Ew3Da5gqxw
The young winger’s support play, purposeful running and smartly executed final pass, though, did not go unnoticed in high places. Even before he was named in this season’s BT Sport Dream Team this week Murley has made it on to Eddie Jones’s radar and may yet emerge as a possible bolter for the upcoming Australian adventure. “I’ve had a positive chat with Eddie,” he reveals. “I’m not really sure what’s going to happen yet. He just told me to keep working hard. We’ve obviously got to focus on the playoffs but personally I’d love to be in and around the England squad.”
The son of an army officer, Murley has come a long way in a relatively short period since his days at Salisbury RFC and Bishop Wordsworth’s School. His father, Jon, hails from Cornwall and was at school with Jack Nowell’s parents in Penzance. As it happens Murley is a similar type of player to Nowell: strong in contact, hungry for action and an excellent team man. “When I was younger he was the type of winger I looked up to. We’re quite a similar build. The way he gets in and around the ruck and doesn’t just carry on his wing … he’s definitely someone I’d aspire to be like.”
Continue his fine form at the sharp end of the season – he has scored eight tries in his last six league appearances – and Murley’s stock will continue to rise. It will also further underscore the attacking quality that Quins now have at their disposal. Everyone talks about Care, Smith and their South African arrowhead André Esterhuizen but increasingly rare these days is the high-profile game in which Murley, Marchant, Tyrone Green – wearing 14 for this fixture – or Huw Jones do not do something spectacular.
If some of the credit must go to the enlightened coaching of, among others, Tabai Matson and Nick Evans, Murley reckons the long-time connection he has with Smith and other academy graduates also helps. In addition to Smith’s home cooking – “The day before a game when we’re getting the carbs in he does a nice little fried rice which is unbelievable” – there is a proactive on-field bond. “We all love playing and training together. We’ve done it since we were 16 … that closeness is what brings us through in a lot of games when we’re 20 points down. It really pulls us together.”
So can Quins do it again? Given some quick ball and a little space, Murley genuinely thinks so. “Last year there was almost an element of surprise. But we were like: ‘We can shock everyone, we know we can do it, we’ve seen the way we train and play’. It’s been the same again this year. We need the whole squad to believe and to be on the same page. We’ve pulled off big wins in the past in big games so we’re hoping we can do it again.”
