Quins sneak in after Saints snub late kick
CHARLIE Mulchrone was delighted to see Harlequins’ young stars get a taste of first-team glory on Friday night.
Quins roared back from 25-14 down late on, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes to earn a dramatic win against Northampton Saints.
There were scenes of jubilation in front of a sizeable crowd at The Stoop, reminiscent of some fantastic wins Quins’ more senior players have secured in recent times.
And skills and kicking coach Mulchrone said: “It was great to see it from those lads because we’ve seen it in the Prem with the others.
“For them to experience those reactions at the end of the game was class, the way they celebrated and pulled off a win in true Quins style.”
Harlequins, the reigning Premiership champions, are now back on track in the Premiership Rugby Cup after bouncing back from a defeat in their first pool fixture, at Saracens.
They picked up the full five points against Saints as Luke Wallace bagged the bonus-point try seven minutes from time, with Jamie Benson holding his nerve to convert and win the game for the hosts.
“I thought Benson was class,” Mulchrone said. “For a man who came in for the Sarries week and then for this game, he’s going from strength to strength. He’s got a great head on young shoulders.
“It was great to see other boys getting their debuts and to see them all celebrating at the end was a class moment for the group.”
Harlequins had flown out of the blocks, with centre Lennox Anyanwu coming to the fore as he won an early penalty and then proceeded to score his side’s first try.
Benson converted and he was doing so again after Quins exposed Saints, with Aaron Morris sucking the away side in before Huw Jones sent the onrushing Scott Steele over the line.
Northampton finally got up and running when a superb offload from Rory Hutchinson opened the door for full-back George Hendy to score in the corner.
Saints then levelled with a Mike Haywood try from a dominant lineout drive and went in at half-time ahead after Josh Gillespie picked up a loose ball and scored in the corner.
Saints looked to have taken control early in the second half when James Grayson notched a couple of penalties to put his side 25-14 up.
But quick fire yellow cards for JJ Tonks and Tom Collins saw Saints reduced to 13 men and Quins responded, with Anyanwu scoring his second try of the night following a slick move.
Northampton turned down a shot at goal that would have put them nine points up, and they were made to pay as Wallace powered over after Jones had been stopped just short. Benson converted to secure the win.
The questions in the Saints camp revolved around why they decided to go for the corner in pursuit of a bonus-point try rather than kicking the three points that would have won them the game.
It was put to assistant coach Matt Ferguson that taking the shot at goal was the obvious option.
But Ferguson said: “No, not if you put it in the corner and drive them over like we did in the first half. We back our maul, our maul was going really well.
“We want to be a team that puts the opposition under huge amounts of pressure so we were banging that into the corner and saying ‘we’re coming at you with a maul after already putting one over’.
“If you get that, it massively changes the picture of the game on the scoreboard and on their motivation.
“We’ll look at all the decisions and that’s the obvious one that comes to mind but the 14 points we conceded at the start, is a lot more important.”