Brown’s late try ends Quins valiant fightback

THERE seemed no way back for Harlequins when they trailed 31-14 at halftime, yet with 15 minutes to go they had hauled themselves into a 35-31 lead in a match that featured 11 tries.

It was a remarkable fightback from last season’s beaten Challenge Cup finalists, but their good work was undone when Tom Brown rose to win a last-gasp aerial battle to bag the home side’s sixth try.

It didn’t really matter that Jason Tovey’s conversion came back off the post as one point was enough to give the Scottish side command of Pool 5.

“It was just a roller coaster of a game,” said Edinburgh acting head coach Duncan Hodge.

“I think what I take out of it was the way we bounced back from the first two minutes, when we made some bad errors and they got a soft try, and then the attitude in the final two minutes to hold on.

“To come back from that start and play like we did for half an hour was unbelievable, then we lost our way for a variety of reasons, the penalty count, we lost our shape, we lost our discipline and got pounded for 25 to 30 minutes.”

As for his opposite number, John Kingston, he was left ruing a missed opportunity after last weekend’s bonus point win at home against Stade Francais Paris.

“You cannot afford to give away the number of points we did in the first half, although it looked like we had the game won at the end,” he said.

“That is not the end of it, it is not a knockout competition and we have seven

points from two games.

“We’ll keep fighting and, with four more games to go, we have a good chance of getting out of the group I would have thought.”

Leading 31-14 at the break, with a bonus point already in the bag thanks to five tries, it looked as though the Scottish capital side were going to romp home.

But Quins had other ideas as they scored 21 unanswered points to bag their own bonus-point in the second half.

But then Brown rose above the Quins defence after Damien Hoyland had hoisted the ball as high as he could and his 78th minute touchdown won the day.

Even so, there was still more drama to come as Quins pushed for a matchwinning score and it took an Edinburgh turnover on their own line to keep them out.