Harlequins 20 - London Irish 15
A
win’s a win, but there’s no surprise Quins’ Director of Rugby
Conor O’Shea was unhappy with his side’s spluttering start to the
season. They were ill-disciplined and out of sorts and not even
their England players were able to make much of a mark.
“Our
second half wasn't good enough..we know that.” said
Conor O'Shea.
New
captain Joe Marler was one of two Quins’ players to be
yellow-carded and they failed to get any points on the board at all
in the second half.
Just
as well then, that they’d started brightly and were 10-0 up inside
eight minutes. The surprisingly inconsistent Nick Evans first kicked
a penalty and then good attacking play from a line-out saw the ball
spun along the line at speed for Ugo Monye to go over for a try.
Evans’ conversion then went over off a post.
Irish
reduced the gap with a penalty from Shane Geraghty, but when his
team-mate Eamonn Sheridan was yellow carded, Evans kicked the ensuing
penalty to make it 13
– 3. Gerahty put another penalty over from 38 metres to keep
Irish in touch, but the Quins’ response was instant and
devastating. Ollie Lindsay-Hague slipped a tackle and sped down the
touchline unopposed to score under the posts. Evans converted to
make it 20 – 6 and only the crossbar prevented Geraghty reducing
the deficit from a 55-metre penalty on the stroke of half-time.
HT Harlequins 20 - London Irish 6
Harlequins
self-imposed problems began within a minute off the restart. First,
new captain Joe Marler was yellow-carded for a tip-tackle and
Geraghty kicked the resulting penalty to make it 20 – 9. Then Kyle
Sinckler was binned for a high tackle and for at least a minute Quins
were down to 13 men.
More
ill-discipline resulted in two more Geraghty penalties, which he
confidently kicked over to make it 20 – 15 and with a quarter of an
hour remaining, Irish hopes were rising, but they weren’t able to
secure the territory to get any closer.
Nick
Evans’ fourth penalty miss of the afternoon - from the 22-metre
line – summed up a sorry second half for Quins and now the scrutiny
will begin to work out why they were misfiring.
FT Harlequins 20 - London Irish 15
Nick
Easter summed it up;
“We
started off well and played the rugby in the right areas, but we
allowed them to get to us and poor indiscipline let them back in it.
In the end we were hanging on by the finger nails. Better sides will
put us away!”
So
when are we going to have the pleasure of seeing the patient,
composed and clever side of last season?
Conor
O'Shea elaborated;
“It's
the start of a marathon, it's game one in...we'll take a huge amount
in terms of how we're preparing, game one of 22 and let's get ready
for the roller-coaster.”
Well
in a match where the penalty count for Harlequins was unacceptably
high and Irish managed to show superiority in the scrum along with
Harlequins losing all shape and at times, sense of discipline – no
player actually stood out for me – so I hope I am wrong, but maybe
it won’t be any time soon.