By Alanquin
February 23 2014

Late, late victories do not go in threes, as Harlequins discovered at Kingsholm where, despite a late flurry that brought a losing bonus point, they could not conjure the win as they lost by 25 – 20 to a fired up Gloucester eager for their first Premiership win of 2014.

To a substantial extent Harlequins were the victims of their own errors that often conceded field position and attacking opportunities to their opponents leaving Quins defending frantically. Despite an early long range penalty successfully kicked by Botica for an early lead, it was Gloucester that attacked first at pace and determination and it did not take long for the referee’s displeasure to be incurred as Lambert was sent to the sin-bin in the sixth minute. A series of lineouts close to the Quins line was resisted and eventually play was taken back to midfield where another long range penalty allowed Botica to increase Quins’ lead to 0 – 6.

Quins had to make late changes to the team when Casson was injured in training, Monye moving to the centre and Sackey coming from the bench to the wing. Then after the first quarter of an hour they lost Molenaar to injury. Harlequins may have been scoring tries at Twickenham but they were sorely missed at Gloucester.

The home side renewed their attack and this tine were successful in penetrating the defence for a good try from Kalamafoni duly converted by Cook to give the cherry and whites the lead after seventeen minutes. But now Quins were back to full strength and again began to attack. A free kick at a scrum saw Quins opt for another scrum and win a penalty to start another attack. Another penalty followed that was taken quickly by Dickson who released Lindsay-Hague to cross and run round behind the posts to score. Botica converted to give Quins a 7 – 13 lead that despite heavy Gloucester attacking pressure was the score at the interval.

An early penalty for crossing saw Gloucester change tactics and for the first time use a penalty to kick for the posts. Cook was successful and the lead reduced to three points.

There soon followed a period of six minutes that effectively took the match away from Quins. They lost a scrum on the Gloucester twenty-two against the head and surging upfield won a lineout inside the Quins’ twenty two. A powerful catch and drive rumbled over the Quins’ line for Kvesic to score. Cook’s conversion attempt failed. Worse was to follow as unforced errors gave Gloucester field position from which to pressure the Quins’ try line. A knock-on gave away a five metre scrum and soon Dan Murphy crashed through for the home side’s third try. Cook added the extras.

A very harsh yellow card for Louis Grimoldby for a deliberate knock on allowed Cook another successful kick at goal and extended the score to 25 – 13. Gloucester had scored fifteen unanswered points in the period between the fifteenth and twenty-first minutes of the second half.

With both sides seeking to improve their position the game became more broken up. Gloucester went in search of their fourth try while Quins went looking for a score to give them a platform for a belated victory. Kickable penalties were kicked to the corner as Quins sought to manufacture a try. It took them to the thirty-fifth minutes before a catch and drive from a lineout, after a yellow card was shown to a Gloucester prop, was driven over for Ward to touch down. Botica duly converted.

Although Quins continued to attack, another score was not to be and they had to be content with a losing bonus point.

After the match a clearly frustrated Conor O’Shea, upset by a number of happenings and decisions on the pitch, said "I am very proud of our players. Given the adversity we were dealt for a multitude of reasons, I thought our reaction and pride they showed in fighting tooth and nail at a difficult place to come, was incredible. The fact that we finished fighting and looking for something from the game leaves me incredibly frustrated but proud of our players and that will be a valuable point come the end of the season.

"Well done to Gloucester but you cannot control some of those things that were happening out there."

Gloucester: Cook, Sharples, Trinder, Tindall, Monahan, Mills, Robson, Wood, Dawidiuk, Harden, Stooke, Hudson, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, G. Evans.

Replacements: Y. Thomas for Tindall (64), Reynolds for Mills (77), Cowan for Robson (64), Murphy for Wood (47), Edmonds for Dawidiuk (58), F. Burns for Harden (64), James for Hudson (67), Cox for G. Evans (58).

Sin Bin: Y. Thomas (74).

Harlequins: Lindsay-Hague, Smith, Monye, Molenaar, Sackey, Botica, Dickson, Lambert, Gray, Sinckler, Kennedy, Robson, Fa'asavalu, Wallace, Easter.

Replacements: Stuart for Monye (75), Ward for Gray (58), Doran-Jones for Sinckler (58), Matthews for Robson (44), Guest for Fa'asavalu (58).

Sin Bin: Lambert (8), Grimoldby (60).

Attendance: 12,531

Ref: Greg Garner (RFU)