Victory Snatched Away In Injury Time

By AlanQuin
March 27 2005

A match that Harlequins could and should have won was snatched from them by the very last kick of the match as Northampton’s Shane Drahm converted the last gasp try of Mark Tucker and left them with only a bonus point for their labours.

Quins had started well and from the very first lineout the forwards produced a fine rolling maul which pushed the Northampton pack well back into their own half resulting in a penalty for offside.  Arwel Thomas, a late inclusion for Staunton (calf strain), missed the place kick.  In the resulting Northampton attack from the restart Tani Fuga was penalised for a high tackle and Drahm levelled the scores.

Further penalties for each side moved the score on to 6 – 6 after fifteen minutes and unforced errors on both sides caused promising attacks to founder.  A heavy rain shower caused ball handling to become more difficult and both sides were guilty of simple mistakes.

Then a yellow card for an offside offence in front of the posts removed Arwel Thomas from the fray and allowed Drahm to put Northampton 9 -6 in front. But Saints could not capitalise further on the extra man and added no further points during Thomas’ absence.  Indeed Quins increased their pressure deep in the Northampton half and were awarded a penalty in a kickable position which Gavin Duffy missed. 

One wondered why Quins did not opt for the catch and drive from the lineout while their scrum had been superior. An injury to Fuga saw him replaced by Tiatia.

With Thomas returning Quins went back on the attack and only a knock-on by George Harder stopped him scoring although he remedied this three minutes later when from  a turn over of possession inside the twenty two, Thomas put Harder through for Harlequins first try and the conversion left them leading 9 – 13 at half-time.

Northampton started to make substitutions from half-time starting by bringing on Tom Smith to strengthen the pack.  Shortly after the start an injury saw Jon Dawson on for Worsley.  Quins defended staunchly in the face of Northampton pressure kept them in midfield so that when a penalty was awarded to Saints inside their own half Drahm sought to kick from 55 metres and failed to add to the score.

Then in what ought to have been the decisive incident in the match Arwel Thomas intercepted a pass from Stcherbina and ran fully sixty metres to the posts swerving round the full back to score a try which he converted for Quins increase their lead  to 9 – 20.

Northampton continued to make elementary errors.   Their attacks were devoid of inspiration and seemed to consist of getting the ball to Reihana and hoping that he could break through the defensive line with his normally elusive running.  A penalty against Quins for pulling down a maul saw Saints have an attacking lineout only twelve metres from the Quins’ line, but Miall stole the line-out and the attack foundered.

The next penalty saw Drahm successful from a difficult angle and the score was 12 -20.  Maling replaced Miall and for Northampton Steve Thompson replaced Richmond.   As the final quarter began Thomas missed with a penalty from over 40 metres and again it was difficult to understand why the kicking option had been chosen when the opportunity for greater pressure on the Saints line would have been eminently possible from the lineout.

Saints began to increase the pressure and in the thirty-third minute a yellow card for Tom Williams left Quins down to fourteen men for the rest of the match.  For the remaining seven minutes and seven further minutes of injury time Quins defended superbly as attack after attack foundered on their defensive wall.  Barratt was brought on in place of Nick Easter to bolster the defence as Quins sought to hold the line.  A penalty kicked in injury time by Drahm reduced the deficit to 15 -20 and Saints began a last concerted attack led by Drahm who managed to offload to his wing in the tackle and Tucker crossed for the try with seconds remaining.  Drahm’s conversion sealed the win.

Kickers win matches and Quins will rue the three kickable penalties that missed their target as well as at least one other try scoring opportunity.  This was a poor Saints team, devoid of inspiration who squandered scoring overlaps and should have done very much better.  The win has probably saved their position in the Premiership. Much the same could properly be said of Harlequins.  The bonus point leaves them only one short of Mark Evans’ minimum target of 37 points and Leeds are 10 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

At the press conference, Mark Evans admitted that he was nearly speechless! He gave credit to Northampton for keeping on playing despite the score.  He said that the sin-binning of Tom Williams on 71 minutes was a pretty rough call as it gave Northampton a fillip knowing that he was not coming back. He was ferociously disappointed to lose a game which would have changed our horizons.  We could have looked at other targets if we had won.

He thought we were the better team for three-quarters of the game but not by a huge amount. In the lst 20 minutes we did not execute well.  The decisions were right but we did not do it.

In conversation with your reporter prior to the game, Mark Evans indicated that he had completed three out of six signings for next seasons and ten out of eleven re-signings.  He expected to get the other three signings completed.  All were players that he wanted.