Harlequins must up their game to break tradition of slow Premiership start

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/07/harlequins-london-irish-aviva-premiership-match-report

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The rows of empty seats long before the end of the second game of the double-header said it all about a dreary contest, bringing to mind the Peter Cook joke about Spurs. “I climbed the wall at White Hart Lane at half-time on Saturday. A policeman caught me and told me to get back in.”

Quins go in for close matches at the start of a campaign but, after being 20-6 ahead at the interval through tries from their left-wings, Ugo Monye and his replacement Ollie Lindsay-Hague, they should have won comfortably against limited, if persistent, opponents. A loss of discipline and four missed penalties by Nick Evans made it far closer than it should have been.

“It was not perfect but it gives us something to build on,” said the Harlequins and England full-back Mike Brown. “We would probably have lost a game like that a year ago but we are going to have to be better on Friday when we face Saracens.”

Twelve months ago, Quins were fortunate to beat Wasps by a point, after Andy Goode missed a conversion at the death, and lost at home to Northampton six days later. “We have a poor recent record against Saracens and we are keen to turn that around,” said the No8 Nick Easter. “We did not have a great first six weeks last season which meant we had to play catch-up and not being able to rest and rotate meant we ran out of steam in the play-off semi-final [against Saracens].”

Harlequins lost their momentum when their new captain, Joe Marler, was sent to the sin-bin 90 seconds into the second half for a dangerous tackle on the London Irish hooker David Paice, the victim of a high shot eight minutes later from the prop Kyle Sinckler, who was also given 10 minutes to reflect on his technique.

Irish responded through the boot of Shane Geraghty, winning the second half 9-0, but their lack of potency was summed up by their one threatening attack, which ended after a series of phases near their opponents’ line when the ball emerged and, as a number of players in green gawped at it, Quins helped themselves.

Irish have won only 16 of their past 52 Premiership matches and on this evidence face another struggle at the wrong end of the table. They were unfortunate to lose Eamonn Sheridan to the sin-bin in the first half, during which time Quins scored 10 points to three; the centre did not appear to have committed any offence after tackling Brown, but they did not threaten enough to merit victory.

“We had a number of new players in the squad and while we did not have direction in the first half, we were far better after the break and our scrum was outstanding,” said Irish’s director of rugby, Brian Smith. “We could have won, but I would have taken a bonus point at half-time.”

London Irish Homer, Ojo, Mulchrone, Sheridan (Noakes 67), Short, Geraghty, Steele (O’Leary 49), Court, Paice, Aulika (Halavatau 54), Skivington, Leo (Gilsenan 80), Cowan, Treviranus, Guest (Low 61). Sin-bin Sheridan (27). Pens Geraghty 5.

Harlequins Brown, Yarde, Hopper, Turner-Hall, Monye (Lindsay-Hague 29), Evans, Care, Marler, Gray (Buchanan 54), Sinckler (Collier 63), Matthews (Merrick 60), Robson, Wallace (Lambert 47), Robshaw, Easter. Sin-bin Marler (42), Sinckler (51). Tries Monye, Lindsay-Hague. Cons Evans 2. Pens Evans 2.

Att 61,424 Referee Greg Garner

Big season for

Ollie Lindsay-Hague The game fizzled out long before its end, but Quins’ replacement wing was one of the few to stand out. He showed strength and pace in scoring his try, shrugging off the challenge of Topsy Ojo on a 40-metre run, and was denied a second late on by a Danny Care knock-on