By AlanQuin
September 4 2006

A last minute penalty from near the half-way line, scored by the London Irish fly-half Flutey, gave the Exiles victory over Harlequins in the London Double Header by a single point 20 – 19.

Late changes to the announced team saw Mike Brown replace Tom Williams and Adrian Jarvis replace Andrew Mehrtens, the latter’s knee not having recovered from a knock last week. Simon Keogh replaced Danny Care on the bench.

It took only three minutes for the first score as Quins were awarded a penalty for a high tackle and Jarvis kicked from about 35 metres.  Both teams then sought to attack but unforced errors frustrated their intent.  A dangerous loose ball was well defended by Monye and then a scrum to Quins and another penalty allowed Quins to take play back into the Irish half where another penalty saw Jarvis increase the score to 0 – 6 after ten minutes.

The Irish tried to attack again but Quins’ defence was good and good kicking clearances pushed the Irish back into their own half as Quins were playing with the strong gusting wind at their backs. Another good Quins attack saw Mike Brown just put into touch a metre short of the try line.

A blatant body check on So’oialo as he broke and chipped over the defence was ignored by the referee who merely waved play on. An over optimistic cross field kick failed to connect with an attacker.  But Quins were losing line-outs to the Irish locks who were across the gap almost before the ball was thrown and the Irish were gaining field position to their advantage.

Then a yellow card for Abbott for a dangerous tackle reduced Quins to 14 men and the resultant penalty saw Irish open their score.  Irish tried hard to make their advantage tell and succeeded aided by poor play from Quins.   An attacking scrum only some 8 metres from the line was very well defended by Quins and they turned over possession. Then a poor attempted pass or dropping of the ball by Brown gave the ball back to the Irish and with the extra man giving an overlap they were able to work Topsy Ojo across in the corner to lead at 8 – 6 with the conversion missed.

Abbott returned and it was the Exiles turn to have a man sin-binned as a yellow card was shown to Leguizamon for punching and the simple kick in front of the posts saw Quins regain the lead at 8 – 9.

Quins tried to increase the pressure and a penalty on the half-way line saw Jarvis’ kick fall well short.  An attempted break by So’oialo came to nothing and another excellent break by Luscombe almost succeeded, but the half ended without further score.

After the interval Quins continued to try to attack.  Another good thrust from Luscombe was stopped by a fine tackle.  London Irish replace their hooker, a prop and the Number 8 who never returned from the sin-bin.  A clever interchange by So’oialo and Harder just failed to penetrate.  Quins began to pick and drive and snipe round the fringes and made substantial headway and had all but crossed the line when Irish killed the ball and were penalised, allowing Jarvis a simple kick in front of the posts to increase the lead to 8 – 12. 

The Irish reply was immediate and a penalty on Quins’ twenty-two again narrowed the gap to a single point and another penalty almost immediately following from the same place saw Irish back in the lead.  This was followed by a dangerous and threatening Irish drive deep towards the Quins’ line and Fluty capitalised with drop goal to open up the lead to 17 – 12 as the third quarter ended.

Quins replaced Hayter with Richards and Spanghero with Evans and shortly after brought on Skinner for Easter.  In between, Flutey had another penalty attempt from the half-way line which hit the left-hand post and bounced back infield.  But now Irish were turning the screw. Quins were driven back into the left hand corner by a good clearance kick and then lost another line-out only to be saved by Irish knocking on. 

Quins redoubled their efforts and turned over possession again to gain a penalty and an attacking line-out on their left.  A tremendous drive from the line-out saw them carry Simon Miall and the ball clear over the line.  He dropped the ball, apparently backwards, for Ceri Jones to fall on the ball for the try. Jarvis converted and Harlequins led by 17 – 19 with only two or three minutes remaining.

That was time enough for Flutey to miss with one penalty attempt and then in injury time to successfully kick the winning score when Richards went in off his feet unnecessarily.   An attempt at a drop goal by Jarvis is best forgotten  and Quins had lost a game they might easily have won.

The absence of Mehrtens and his greater experience might have closed the game down when the try was scored and Keogh might have been introduced earlier to more effect.  It was surprising, too, that Duffy was left on the bench as Brown had brought little to the party except the Irish try.

The Irish coaching staff was, not surprisingly, relieved at the result. Toby Booth, their forwards coach said  ”Quins were very determined.  They did themselves a lot of good and will cause people a lot of problems this season”

Dean Richards, however, was not pleased.   "The boys were bitterly disappointed.” he said. "It wasn't the fact we lost in the final two minutes, it was that we didn't execute things the way we wanted. We didn't mix our game up very well. Our performance wasn't up to the standard that they expect from themselves." Asked about the final penalty, he said   "It was a penalty. It was down to a bit of over-exuberance by one of our replacements."

London Irish: D Armitage; T Ojo, D Feaunati, M Catt (capt, B Everitt 72min), S Tagicakibau; R Flutey, P Hodgson; T Lea’aetoa (N Hatley 57min), D Coetzee (R Russell h-t), R Skuse (D Fitter 57min), N Kennedy, B Casey, K Roche, J-M Leguizamon (P Murphy 57min), O Magne (D Danaher 76min).

NEC Harlequins: M Brown; G Harder (S Keogh 72min), H Luscombe, S Abbott, U Monye; A Jarvis, S So’oialo; C Jones, J Hayter (J Richards 61min), R Nebbett (M Ross 72min), N Spanghero (J Evans 61min), S Miall, A Vos, N Easter (W Skinner 64min), P Volley (capt).

Yellow cards: London Irish: Leguizamon (34min) Harlequins: Abbott (23min)

Scorers:

London Irish: Try: Ojo 31. Penalties: Flutey (4). Drop Goal: Flutey

NEC Harlequins: Try: Jones 75. Conversion: Jarvis. Penalties: Jarvis (4)

Referee: D Rose (RFU).

Attendance: 51,960