QUESTION MARC
Smith miss is a real puzzle.. but Matson won’t blame him
Harlequins 33 Montpellier
(M’pellier win 60-59 on agg)
By ADAM HATHAWAY
HEAD coach Tabai Matson refused to point the finger at Marcus Smith after his late blunder saw Harlequins exit Europe.
The England fly-half somehow missed a simple conversion with four minutes left, which would have taken the hosts one point ahead on aggregate in this last-16 Champions Cup tie.
The fatal kick, for the extras after Louis Lynagh’s second try, was near the 22m line and just to the left of the posts. But Smith pulled it wide and Montpellier sneaked home by a point.
Quins could have won the game well before that – they were camped in French territory for nearly 20 minutes in the second half without scoring.
And Matson pointed to that series of scrums rather than blaming Smith for his blunder.
He said: “Marcus will be disappointed like all the players who have really high standards and it will hit him.
“You don’t have to tell someone they missed a pass or missed a goal-kick.
They know. It is not just him.
“He was there for the winning of the game at the end, but you can’t put the blame down to him.
“We put them under pressure but didn’t affect the scoreboard, so that is the main thing – the overriding issue was we didn’t score enough points.”
Quins came into this game 40-26 down after last week’s first leg in France, where they had trailed 34-0 just after the break. The comeback kings were fancied to turn the deficit around but fell short.
Matson (circle) added: “We were one point short, and our first-half last week put us in that position. We had 160 minutes to do our thing. Montpellier are
20
a good crew. There will be a lot of really disappointed players and coaches because we felt we could go deeper.
“The way we finished the pool stages got us to this, and to lose by one point after 160 minutes is gutting.”
Up to his fateful last kick (right), Smith had been the star of the show, having a hand in Quins’ opener after just 33 seconds for full-back Huw Jones.
That got the Stoop believing but the Londoners kept making errors and every time they scored Montpellier replied. Visiting centre Yvan Reilhac levelled it but Quins led 28-17 at the break, just three points
down on aggregate. Handre Pollard’s penalty edged the French further ahead over two legs.
Then came a series of eight scrums near the Montpellier line which saw replacement hooker Jeremie Maurouard sin-binned finally.
But Quins couldn’t score a point from it. Smith had a try chalked off for crossing by Jones and it looked like they had missed the boat.
Then Lynagh steamed over with six minutes left after a massive charge by centre Andre Esterhuizen and Smith’s pass. But Smith fluffed his big moment. HARLEQUINS: Tries: Jones, Dombrandt, Marchant, Lynagh (2); Cons: Smith (4) MONTPELLIER: Tries: Reilhac, Tisseron; Cons: Forsans (2);
Pens: Forsans, Pollard