These two will represent English Rugby in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup next weekend. If this is the matter, you will not only make your country proud, you will be amazed.
In the Premier League these days, when you consider one of these two, it’s almost natural that this is exceptional Rugby. Where to start? Ten tries, 73 points, bonus points all around and a competition that fluctuated with the wind. Until the end. The speed and precision with which these two walked freely through the great spaces of Twickenham until the final whistle was staggering. And that was just to watch.
In the end, Harlequins got the victory – mainly because they had to. This keeps them in the hunt for fourth place, now just six points behind Northampton at the top. While the queue for a playoff spot is receding, they are still sitting a little on the outside, thanks to one less victory than Bristol, whose comeback victory at Welford Road keeps them in fourth place, tied with Quins.
Northampton remain in the lead, but the gap in the middle of them and the inexpensive places is now only those six points, with two games to play. The last kick of the game limited you to a bonus point. Courtney Lawe’s attempt with three minutes remaining had secured them two, only for Jarrod Evans’ gone penalty to take one away.
But this seems to be a trivial detail in the context of what happened, Quins entertained almost 60,000 in the big stadium with six tries, although it was reduced to 14 men for half an hour, with yellow cards for Danny Care and Louis Lynagh in the first half and Tyrone Green in the second. The fact that they turned over at half-time with a six-point lead was an achievement, given those two yellow cards, worrying about a headbutt with Lawes that was hard, and Lynaghs for an intentional reversal that could have gone either way.
Luke Northmore had opened the scoring in the second Minute after extending quin’s left and a perfect Marcus Smith cross-field kick to the loitering centre. Quins survived the first two halves with the exception of 14 clean sheets, but Ollie Sleightholme struck at the end of the first quarter, another attempt at invention and precision to give saints the leadership they held for most of the second quarter. Quins got it back five minutes before the break as Stephan Lewies finished off a series of close-range actionstartings with Quins’ third.
The saints thought they had scored again at half-time. Brighter hands made Lawes gallop to the left. Sam Graham reached out to hit even from close range, but there had been a marginal boost in the previous Phase.
Quins’ bonus-point attempt, as Cadan Murley Smith took a fine line, seemed to have settled things in the home side’s favour. But, of course, this only served to Inspire the guests, who returned to the lead within 20 minutes. Brighter hands on the left freed Sleightholme before more careful handling sent James Ramm to the posts. The green saw the yellow, this time without Argument, for a deliberate kick-off, and the saints scored their third strike while he was away, Tom Litchfield worked.
Care would almost certainly have been shown yellow in the last quarter if he had not already been so harsh, but his former teammate, Referee Karl Dickson, managed to control the hand that instinctively grabbed his bag as Care caught Alex Mitchell on an rude jerk. Care survived the investigation, but was immediately withdrawn for Will Porter, who scored a series of attempts to win the Match.