The Rugby Paper

Quins get off to Challenge Cup flier against Stade

- ■ By NICK VERDIER

HARLEQUINS are desperate to celebrate their 150th anniversar­y by lifting a trophy and the message could not have been clearer with this seven-try rout of old foes Stade Francais.

Beaten in the final by Montpellie­r last season, the Quins are keen to have another go and it showed with an impressive firsthalf which essentiall­y put the game to bed on Thursday night.

Joe Marler, Joe Marchant and Tim Visser had put the hosts in control before the unstoppabl­e James Chisholm made his presence felt with two tries in five minutes to secure the bonus-point and the win by half-time.

Visser’s second ended any hopes of a Stade fightback even if they came close to rescuing the try bonus-point as Clement Daguin and Willem Alberts added to Sekou Macalou’s first-half touchdown.

But Quins held on and even scored one last try through the hard-working Marland Yarde to the delight of boss John Kingston.

“You can’t go into games against such opposition expecting to get the try bonus-point so to do it really pleases me,” he said.

“Our first half was really good both sides of the ball. We might have dropped off in the second half but we managed to keep them at arms length. It was a pretty complete performanc­e and it puts in control in the pool.

“I was impressed by how James stepped up with only a handful of first team appearance­s to his name. A lot of people played well tonight and he was one of them.”

It didn't take long for Quins to kick things off as the fit-again Marler barged over the line from a powerful driving maul five minutes in.

Stade Francais came close to levelling but Luke Wallace secured a brilliant turnover and Quins then scored two tries in three minutes with Visser involved in both.

First it was his chip kick that put French fly-half Jules Plisson under huge pressure and when he unnecessar­ily tried to offload back infield in front of his line Marchant was there to collect the ball and score.

Then a brilliant 70-metre interplay between Visser and Mike Brown saw the Flying Dutchman score a sensationa­l try which put the hosts 19-0 in front.

The French got back in the game when Sekou Macalou turned a poor kick from Yarde into a try under the posts but Quins hit back in style from the restart.

With a sterling run from Yarde laying the platform, Chisholm secured the bonus-point, carrying three defenders on his back before touching down and five minutes later, the barnstormi­ng No.8 was at it again from a clever lineout move.

Trailing 31-7 Stade Francais showed some intent at the start of the second half but, struggling to turn territory into points, they forced a pass and could only watch as Visser raced under the posts with a length of the field intercepti­on.

Daguin and Springbok Alberts grabbed consolatio­n tries for the French but they left the Stoop empty handed as Yarde made sure Quins had the last word with his side’s seventh.

 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Fall guy: Joe Marchant scores Quins’ second try
Fall guy: Joe Marchant scores Quins’ second try
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom