Quins edge out Irish

Editor

Harlequins failed to score a point in the second half but held on for a 20-15 win over London Irish at Twickenham.

Harlequins failed to score a point in the second half but held on for a 20-15 win over London Irish at Twickenham.

Quins made a flying start with a penalty and converted try by Ugo Monye in the first ten minutes.

Shane Geraghty got Irish on the scoreboard after 25 minutes with a penalty but indiscipline proved costly as Eamonn Sheridan was sent to the sin-bin.

Geraghty scored a second penalty but Irish conceded another try, this time through Ollie Lindsay-Hague to go into the break 20-6 down.

Quins failed to step it up in the second half and yellow cards for Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler led to three successful penalties from Geraghty.

Quins failed to add to their first half score, but ultimately did enough to see out the victory.

Irish were penalised for hands in the ruck and Nick Evans improved upon his earlier effort to give Quins a 3-0 lead after seven minutes before Monye dived over the line in the corner two minutes later.

Irish had to wait until the 26th minute to get their first points on the board as Geraghty successfully kicked to goal with a third consecutive penalty, but those points were given straight back as Sheridan played the ball on the ground and was sent to the sin-bin with Evans successful with the boot.

After moving through the phases but making little ground, Irish won another penalty which Geraghty opted to kick to goal, and he closed the gap to seven.

The gap was quickly extended by Quins though, as Lindsay-Hague beat Topsy Ojo on the outside and showed blistering pace to go over under the posts with Evans converting.

Irish got off to a good start in the second half, capitalising on Marler's yellow card with a third Geraghty penalty.

Evans had the chance to restore Quins' 14-point lead but his penalty drifted wide.
Just as Quins were preparing for the reintroduction of Marler, Sinckler was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle, leaving them temporarily down to 13.

Geraghty scored his fourth penalty of the game from in front of the posts to close the gap to eight as Quins were struggling to build any momentum.

And with less than 15 minutes on the clock, Geraghty scored his fifth penalty of the game to leave them just one score behind.

Quins looked like they might have had the game wrapped up with five minutes to play, but a clear knock-on in the build up from Danny Care saw it chalked off by the TMO.

Evans had the chance to establish an eight-point lead with three minutes to play but a fairly straightforward kick was pulled wide.

Irish were unable to score the vital try, but did keep themselves within bonus point territory.

The scorers:

For London Irish:
Pens: Geraghty 5
Yellow card: Sheridan

For Harlequins:
Tries: Monye, Lindsay-Hague
Cons: Evans 2
Pens: Evans 2
Yellow cards: Marler, Sinckler

The teams:

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Fergus Mulchrone, 12 Eamonn Sheridan, 11 James Short, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Scott Steele, 8 Tom Guest, 7 Ofisa Treviranus, 6 Blair Cowan, 5 Dan Leo, 4 George Skivington (c), 3 Halani Aulika, 2 David Paice, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Gerard Ellis, 17 Matt Parr, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Kieran Low, 20 Conor Gilsenan, 21 Tomás O'Leary, 22 Chris Noakes, 23 Tom Fowlie.

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw, 6 Luke Wallace, 5 George Robson, 4 Charlie Matthews, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler (c).
Replacements: 16 Rob Buchanan, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Will Collier, 19 George Merrick, 20 Jack Clifford, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Ben Botica, 23 Ollie Lindsay-Hague.

Referee: Gregory Garner
Assistant Referees: Ashley Rowden, Andrew Pearce
TMO: Keith Lewis