The one-word review that Oscar Beard believes will ignite Harlequins

England’s past will meet England’s future if Oscar Beard has his way when Harlequins take on Manu Tuilagi’s Bayonne in round two of the Investec Champions Cup on Sunday.

Beard was capped for the first time by England off the bench in this summer’s 40-5 win over the USA in the summer, but has so far failed to add to that solitary cap.

With Fraser Dingwall and Ollie Lawrence developing a good understanding in England’s midfield, Max Ojomoh turning in a Player of the Match performance on his home debut after standing in as injury cover for the former in the last Test of the year, and Benhard Janse van Rensburg counting down the days until he becomes eligible, it has suddenly become very competitive in the centres.

“Max is a quality player and he fully deserves all the credit he gets and I am just glad as a mate that he has got an opportunity to prove himself. At the same time, I’m obviously gutted for Fraser who’s been absolutely awesome,” said Beard, who got 19 minutes of game time in Washington D.C.

“I just think it shows the depth of centre in England isn’t as bad as I think probably everyone says it is. Max took his opportunity and was absolutely awesome and I am really happy for him.”

Bristol star Janse van Rensburg is believed to be eligible to play for England next Autumn, adding further competition into the mix for Beard and other hopefuls, like his club team-mate, Luke Northmore.

“He (Benhard) is a quality player and it’ll be interesting to see what happens there in the future,” replief Beard when asked about the South African-born player being chucked into the mix.

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All that is for the future though, and for now, Beard is looking forward to playing Top 14 high flyers, Bayonne, and a head-to-head with Tuilagi.

“You look at players they have – they’ve got Manu Tuilagi in the centres, who is absolutely ripping it up. Those are the games I want to play in, those are the games the boys want to play in and prove ourselves in.”

Leinster last week was another such occasion. Having been thrashed 62-0 in the Round of 16 in last season’s Investec Champions Cup, Quins fans feared the worst when England trio Marcus Smith, Chandler Cunningham-South and Fin Baxter were left out of the matchday 23.

However, the team that Quins fielde din Dublin, led by Cadan Murley, put up a valiant battle before losing 45-28, with Beard and Northmore being among the try scorers.

“For me, I want to test myself against the best. I have watched Garry Ringrose since I was however old, 11/12 years old, since when he first started playing for Ireland,” said Beard.

“I idolised how he plays; he is a brilliant player and to test myself against him, I want to be in those sort of battles. I want to compete with the best and bring the best out of myself and ultimately try and win those battles. Obviously playing boys like that you are not always going to win those battles but great experience comes from it.”

As for the team, belief is the word that Beard and his team-mates have taken from the experience.

“We had 36% possession so to score 28 points was huge for us. There was a bit of fear in the group after what happened last year and obviously resting some of our international boys, which was mandatory rest, quite a few people wrote us off including our own fans. But I think that fear almost allowed us to properly go out there and express ourselves … ‘no one rates us, no one back us here, let’s give it a crack’.

“Obviously we lost but to get the bonus point in Europe is huge, and I think around the 60-minute mark we were well in the game, three points in it (21-24). We did all our reviews today and we gave away too many penalties after this one sequence of play, which just let them back in the game.

“Gilly’s (Jason Gilmore, head coach) mentioned it, we should’t be going from that, ‘yes, lads, we were super competitive against Leinster away, we got a bonus point’, we should be frustrated that we didn’t win it because we had them on the ropes; we were in control and we let them back in it.

“We gave away 16 penalties and they gave away eight. It is going to be extremely hard to win a game no matter who it is when you give away that many penalties and piggyback them up the pitch, which ultimately we ended up doing. And then with the yellow (to Jarrod Evans in the 69th minute), when they scored most of their points, it is always tough to come back from, especially with the quality and calibre of players they have.

“The effort was fully there, the lads fronted up and I think the one word we used for this game was belief. I think that will spark belief in the group going forwards. I do believe we are close, I know results haven’t gone our way, but I think we are close to clicking.”