It's win or bust for Harlequins, says England hopeful Luke Wallace

 
Tom Dutton14 April 2014

Harlequins flanker Luke Wallace has said the squad are treating their remaining Aviva Premiership fixtures as win or bust in their pursuit of a coveted play-off position.

Quins claimed an important bonus-point win over Sale Sharks last week to leapfrog their hosts into fifth and now sit five points off the play-offs with attention turning to the visit of an in-form Leicester Tigers team on Good Friday.

Conor O'Shea's side have been hampered by injury this term, but the squad has been lifted by the returning England contingent and go into the game with an unbeaten Premiership record at the Twickenham Stoop in 2014.

"We're just approaching every game as a knockout game now really - if we slip up once I think we probably won't make it, so there's a lot of pressure but I think we perform well under pressure," Wallace told Standard Sport.

"If we win all our matches we'll get into the top four. It's in our hands playing both Bath and Leicester at home – those are big matches for us."

Leicester have won seven Premiership matches on the bounce and head into Friday's game unbeaten in the league since the turn of the year.

But Wallace, who remains wary of the Leicester threat, insists the Quins squad was buoyed by Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final success over Stade Francais earlier this month and are relishing the visit of Richard Cockerill's side.

He continued: "We're playing the best rugby we've played all year recently; obviously the game against Stade Francais was a big plus for us, we really took our game onto the pitch and we were happy with the way we played.

"Confidence is high and we're looking forward to playing Leicester."

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old has reiterated his desire to break into Stuart Lancaster's England squad.

At one stage it was thought England captain Chris Robshaw would keep Wallace out of international contention, but the pair have since established a flourishing partnership at club level.

And despite cursing his debut performance for the England Saxons in January, Wallace is holding out hope for a call-up ahead of England's three-test tour of New Zealand in June.

"I'm trying to get as many good performances under my belt as possible ," he added, "and then if I get asked to go to New Zealand obviously I'd be thrilled."

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