James Horwill urges Harlequins to bounce back from London Irish loss

Harlequins captain James Horwill has urged his side to bounce back from their opening day loss to London Irish when they face Gloucester on Saturday.

Quins lost 39-29 to Irish and face a tough test against Gloucester at the Twickenham Stoop as they beat Premiership champions Exeter winning 28-21.

Horwill, the former Australia captain, insists that the mistakes against Irish were addressed in yesterday’s team meeting at their Guilford training base and now they are focused on beating Gloucester to kick-start their season.

Horwill said: “I was bitterly disappointed with the performance at Twickenham. Our discipline was poor and we gave away too many stupid penalties and our ball handling was poor. In the first half we were stop start and erratic and needed to calm down and hold onto the ball.

“When we did that we looked good and got a few tries. A lot of the stuff we did wrong is within our control and we have to fix it in a big week of training before a huge game against Gloucester at the Stoop. We have to make sure we bounce back.”