Sale Sharks 21 Harlequins 30

By Whaley Shark
February 24 2013

Well Quins turned up, did a job on us, and headed back down the motorway witht he four points. What are the positives? We won the first ten minutes of the match 7-3, and the last ten minutes 14-0. Unfortunately, we lost the middle hour 27-0 to make it, overall, not exactly our best ever evening’s work.

And that was a pity really, because we’d started really brightly, turning over Quins’ ball on half way and setting Cameron Shepherd off, twisting and jinking through the Harlequins’ defence for a try inside two minutes. However, we were playing the AP leaders, and it showed as Quins settled down. They pressured us consistently at the ruck and, just on ten minutes, got themselves off the mark by kicking a penalty. They spent most of the next ten minutes in our half and, although we defended a couple of strong attacks well, they kicked another penalty for 7-6 and then, keeping the pressure on, exploited a yellow card for Sam Tuitoupou and an injury to Mark Cueto to run back a deep clearance kick, break down the right and put winger Tom Williams over just after the half hour. They continued to press in the rest of the half, which finished with their normally reliable Ben Botica putting a penalty narrowly wide from 40 metres out.

Quins extended their lead with a successful kick just five minutes into the second half and we missed a chance to respond a few minutes later, then failed to make anything of a good position in their 22. Quins, on the other hand, set up a neat catch-and-drive from a penalty in our 22 and steamrollered over for a Nick Easter try on 65 minutes. Just on 70 minutes, Danny Cipriani missed touch after marking the ball, Quins ran it to our 10 metre line, won a penalty which they kicked to touch, and their lock Charlie Matthews battered over for a third try. With the conversion, we were 30-7 down with just ten minutes to go.

The game opened up then- whether Quins were chasing the try bonus, or were already thinking of a nice warm coach and took their foot off the gas, I don’t know, but we took full advantage. First, Richie Vernon showed a remarkable turn of speed, and some agility, to run in from 25 metres and finally, at the death, Sam Tuitoupou crossed. With two successful conversions, that brought respectability to the scoreline, even if it didn’t yield a losing bonus point.  

Overall, it was a bit of a funny match. Looking back at my notes, we were clearly outgunned for most of the game. In the cold (very cold in Whaley Bridge at the moment!) light of day, there was a substantial gulf between us and a supposedly weakened Harlequins. However, other results this weekend weren’t as disastrous as they could have been for us- yes, we are still bottom, but we are at least in touch with the other strugglers. So, I’m really looking forward to my trip to Leicester next week. Five points there would be very useful!