Away wins for Sale Sharks and 14-man Harlequins

Adam Kyriacou

Harlequins overcame Andre Esterhuizen’s dismissal in the 45th minute to record a superb 34-24 victory over Gloucester in a pulsating game at Kingsholm.

The South African was shown red for an elbow to the face but it did not stop Quins’ momentum as they ran out convincing winners over an injury-ravaged Gloucester.

Alex Dombrandt scored two tries for Harlequins, James Chisholm and Nathan Earle the others, with Marcus Smith converting all four and adding a penalty and a drop goal.

James Hanson scored two tries for Gloucester and Ed Slater also crossed, with Billy Twelvetrees kicking a penalty and a conversion. Jacob Morris added two conversions.

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Harlequins made a bright start to take the lead with an excellent try in the fourth minute. First Smith chipped over the defence for Esterhuizen to collect and when the ball was recycled, Smith was again in the action to send skipper Dombrandt powering over.

Smith converted before Twelvetrees kicked a straightforward penalty to put the hosts on the scoreboard.

The game erupted in the 19th minute when almost all the players were involved in a prolonged dust-up and after the referee had restored order, yellow cards were shown to both loosehead props, Jamal Ford-Robinson and Santiago Garcia Botta.

The visitors had been the better side in the opening quarter and they extended their lead with a simple penalty from Smith but with their first sustained period of pressure, Gloucester responded with their opening try when Ruan Ackermann sent Slater crashing over in the corner.

A superb touchline conversion from Twelvetrees brought the scores level before the props returned from the sin-bin.

Eight minutes from the interval, Gloucester suffered a blow when Twelvetrees departed with a leg injury.

The home side received another setback by conceding a second try when Chisholm drove over from close range, with Smith’s conversion giving his side a deserved 17-10 half-time lead.

Gloucester replaced Joe Simpson and Jack Stanley at the interval but five minutes after the restart Esterhuizen was sent off after countless TMO replays.

Two minutes later it got worse for Quins when lock Glen Young was sin-binned for collapsing a driving maul, but this was somewhat offset by Gloucester’s already disrupted back division losing fly-half Lloyd Evans to injury.

Quins still only had 13 players on the field when they scored a third try. Another well-judged kick from Smith resulted in Earle winning the race for the touchdown.

Young returned from the sin-bin in time to see his side score their bonus-point try when Gloucester failed to deal with an up-and-under from Danny Care and Dombrandt was on hand to race away for his second.

The game was up for Gloucester but they rallied to score two close-range tries from replacement hooker Hanson, before the impressive Smith landed a drop goal.

Earlier, Sale’s South Africa connection played a key role as the Sharks got their Premiership campaign back on track with a 21-13 victory over London Irish.

In the first rugby match to be played in front of a crowd at Irish’s Brentford Community Stadium, tries from Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Akker van der Merwe ultimately ensured the fans went home disappointed.

Having failed to see the game out at Newcastle last week, Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond will have been pleased with how his side squeezed the life out of their opponents in the second half.

They may have felt they needed to win this match twice, though, after Curtis Rona had rounded off an excellent move to bring the hosts level at 13-13 at half-time.

It was Sale who claimed the first points of the match in the 10th minute when AJ MacGinty knocked over a penalty from around 30 metres out.

The visitors did most of the attacking and they had their reward after 24 minutes thanks to some typically quick thinking from South Africa scrum-half Faf de Klerk.

The World Cup winner chose a tap penalty and quickly passed to Van Rensburg, who powered his way over. MacGinty added the conversion.

Paddy Jackson’s penalty then put the Exiles on the board, but MacGinty took the lead back out to 10 points after Rona infringed at the breakdown.

Within a score

Irish again managed to get themselves back within a score through a second penalty from Jackson, but they then survived a big scare.

Nick Phipps’ kick was charged down by Matt Postlethwaite and the lock stretched for the line after being tackled by the former Wallaby, but the TMO showed him to have knocked on in doing so.

The Exiles then struck off the final play of the half when Jackson made a lovely break down the right and timed his pass to give Rona a simple finish, with Jackson’s conversion levelling the score at the break.

Parity did not last long, however, as Van der Merwe restored Sale’s lead three minutes after the restart by bundling his way over off the back of a driving maul.

MacGinty could not add the extras, but Jackson was unable to reduce the gap to two points when he sent a difficult penalty from long range wide.

Simon Hammersley came within inches of adding a third try for the Sharks when he was tackled just short out on the left, but Irish were soon penalised for offside, giving MacGinty an easy three points.

Now eight points behind, the hosts had to chase the game, but Sale’s defence did not budge an inch as the Sharks secured an away win.