Quins can shock Europe again (From Croydon Guardian)

Quins can shock Europe again

12:45pm Thursday 15th October 2009

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Harlequins prop Mark Lambert reckons a shock win for Harlequins against Toulouse this weekend will give the club’s Guinness Premiership campaign a major fillip.

Head coach John Kingston’s men crashed 20-6 at Cardiff Blues last week to get their Heineken Cup campaign off to the worse possible start as they failed to collect a bonus point.

It came on the back of a much improved performance against Bath that saw Nick Easter’s try secure a last-minute win - their first of the new season.

Lambert, who has impressed in the opening weeks of the campaign in the slot vacated by Mike Ross over the summer, sat out that clash at the Stoop, but was back to make his first European start in Wales.

And he reckons Quins, disappointing so far on the domestic front, are approaching the sort of form that famously accounted for Stade Francais last season.

“Losing to last season’s semi-finalists away from home is not a car crash and it was a lot closer than the scoreline might suggest,” he said.

“If you look through the Toulouse side the have a tremendous amount of quality and are one of the biggest clubs in European rugby.

“Everyone wrote us off against Stade and we got a famous win against them. We have got the belief that we can go and do it again.

“We are very nearly there in terms of playing the rugby we want to, we just need to cut out the mistakes that are costing us.

“The Bath game was a massive step. We have strong belief in the style of rugby we want to play. It served us well last year, and a win in Europe is going to give us a huge boost when it comes to the Premiership.”

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