Danny Care stars as Harlequins put half century on embarrassing Cardiff

A Danny Care-inspired Harlequins produced a sublime display to thrash Cardiff 54-15 and move to within touching distance of the Champions Cup last-16.

Despite a quick start from the Welsh region, as a brace from Thomas Young helped them into a 15-7 lead, the Londoners soon began to dominate thanks in part to the control exerted by half-backs Care and Marcus Smith.

Andre Esterhuizen started the surge – adding to Jack Walker’s earlier score – before Will Evans and Oscar Beard went over to secure the bonus-point before half-time.

Cardiff failed to muster much of a response in the second period and four more tries via Smith, Dillon Lewis, Fin Baxter and Tyrone Green sealed a fine Champions Cup victory.

Should Racing 92 succumb to Bath on Sunday, that will confirm Quins’ place in the next round, while they could also earn a home tie in the knockout stages next weekend.

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The last time Cardiff faced an English side – against Bath in December – it was an entertaining, try-filled affair, and this was no different in the early exchanges.

With the adventurous Quins visiting the Welsh capital, it was always going to be a free-flowing clash and these two served up some excellent rugby in the opening half-hour, before the visitors took command.

The hosts initially racked up an 8-0 lead thanks to Tinus de Beer’s penalty and Young’s first try, which came after Care misjudged a cross-field kick.

Harlequins immediately responded to that setback, winning a penalty at the restart and setting up a driving maul that resulted in Walker crossing the whitewash.

Cardiff were proving to be a threat, however, and another fine attack saw them go over for a second time. Once again, it was Young who touched down but it owed plenty to the work of Harri Millard, whose sublime off-load allowed him to score.

At that point, the Welsh region were in the game, but the English outfit began to wrestle control of the match and bully their opponents.

There was that usual Quins spark in attack, but their biggest improvement this season has come in defence and the overall physicality of the team.

As a result, holes began to appear in the Cardiff rearguard and one of those gargantuan units, Esterhuizen, barged over to reduce the arrears.

Evans then followed him as Harlequins took the lead for the first time in the game before a brilliant attack ended in Beard touching down.

Those three tries in 11 minutes meant that the visitors held a 28-15 advantage at the interval, and it was to get even better for the Premiership team at the start of the second period.

Smith was the scorer, but it was not one of his spectacular tries with this one coming from close range after the forwards had battered the tryline.

At that point, it was effectively game over but the hosts did at least stem the bleeding for 20 minutes. However, Quins finished the match well and increased their buffer when former Cardiff prop Lewis crossed the whitewash.

Baxter and Green then followed him in the final five minutes as the Londoners inflicted an embarrassing result on Cardiff.

The teams

Cardiff: 15 Cam Winnett, 14 Harri Millard, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Willis Halaholo, 11 Mason Grady, 10 Tinus de Beer, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 James Botham, 7 Thomas Young, 6 Alex Mann, 5 Seb Davies, 4 Teddy Williams, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Liam Belcher, 1 Rhys Carré
Replacements: 16 Efan Daniel, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Rhys Litterick, 19 Rory Thornton, 20 Mackenzie Martin, 21 Ellis Bevan, 22 Ben Thomas, 23 Owen Lane

Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Nick David, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Cameron Anderson, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care, 8 Alex Dombrandt (c), 7 Will Evans, 6 James Chisholm, 5 George Hammond, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Will Collier, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Fin Baxter
Replacements: 16 Nathan Jibulu, 17 Jordan Els, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Irne Herbst, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Will Porter, 22 Lennox Anyanwu, 23 Louis Lynagh

Referee: Frank Murphy (Ire)
Assistant Referees: Peter Martin (Ire), Sam Holt (Ire)
TMO: Joy Neville (Ire)

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