Harlequins hold off Wasps to remain unbeaten

Harlequins secured their second European Rugby Champions Cup victory of the season when they beat Wasps 16-23 at Adams Park Stadium on Sunday.

Harlequins suffered a blow shortly before the match as Joe Marler failed a late fitness test and was replaced in the match day starting XV by Mark Lambert whose place on the bench was filled by Darryl Marfo and the captaincy reverted to Chris Robshaw.

With sixteen minutes remaining on the clock the scores were level on 16 all but Ashley Johnson broke his bind on a wheeling scrum and a penalty try was awarded.

Nick Evans added the conversion to put Harlequins into the lead at 16-23 which is how the scoring ended as Nick Evans missed a penalty kick in extra time.

The result means that Wasps come away with a losing bonus point for the second week running as they lost 25-20 to Leinster last week.

Harlequins who beat Castres last week now lead Pool 2 ahead of Leinster on points difference.

The Quins pack was the difference between the sides and now they look forward
with relish to their back-to-back contests with three-times European champions
Leinster in December.

“It is incredibly exciting for this group – Leinster and Toulon are the
ones who have set the benchmark in Europe in recent years,”former Leinster
star and now Harlequins Director of Rugby Conor O’Shea told EPCRugby.

“It will be great at the Stoop and going over to the Aviva will be fantastic
– Leinster are a brilliant side.

“I think I scored Leinster’s first try in Europe in a game against Milan
in Italy and it is going to be really nice going back.

“Leinster showed what they are all about by coming back from 16-9 down
to take that victory in Castres and when you look at teams like Leister and
Munster they always seem to find a way to come though in tight games.

“This was our best performance by a long stretch and a real improvement
on last week. We had so much dominance for so much of the game although our
ambition in the first half did not yield what we wanted

“It is a win and it is lovely for the players and to feel good about
getting back to the way we like to play.

“If you get two scores ahead you can get the belief that allows you to
go on a roll and it is a bit disappointing we could not pull away. But then
Adams Park is a very difficult place to come and play.

“We looked as though we were going to get out in front but we gave away
penalties that Andy Goode kicked.”

Final Score Wasps 16 (10) Harlequins 23 (13)

Scorers

Wasps
Tries – Simpson
Pen – Goode 3
Con – Goode
Drop –
Cards –

Harlequins
Tries – Matthews, Penalty
Pen – Evans 3
Con – Evans 2
Drop –
Cards –

Match Officials
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy),
Assistant ref: Matteo Liperini (Italy),
Assistant ref: Stefano Penne (Italy),
TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy),
Citing Commissioner: Francis Palmade (France)

Teams

Wasps: Andrea Masi; Christian Wade, Elliott Daly, Alapati Leiua, Tom Varndell; Andy Goode, Joe Simpson; Matt Mullan (c), Carlo Festuccia, Lorenzo Cittadini, Joe Launchbury, Bradley Davies, Ashley Johnson, Sam Jones, Nathan Hughes

Replacements: Tom Lindsay, Simon McIntyre, Phil Swainston, James Gaskell, Tom Young, Charlie Davies, Rob Miller, Chris Bell

Harlequins: Mike Brown; Marland Yarde, Matt Hopper, George Lowe, A