Harlequins 35 London Irish 27

Harlequins 35 London Irish 27

The long shadow cast by the Rugby World Cup reached Twickenham this afternoon impacting on the opening match of the London Double Header in which Harlequins 'hosted' London Irish. Not only was the attendance affected by events in Wales and France, so also was the shape of the opening game.

The beautiful warm, sunny weather also echoed conditions in France and the strategy employed by Harlequins reflected that of South Africa in their defeat of England less than 24 hours earlier.

London Irish allowed themselves to be out-muscled and out-thought in an opening 40 minutes in which Harlequins dominated possession and territory. The Exiles were dictated to by the home side's limited game plan. That plan was based on a kicking strategy that revolved around Quins' summer signing from Bath, Chris Malone. The fly half employed a combination of kicking to touch and a series of up-and-unders that repeatedly forced Irish to retreat, ensuring that the game was played in the Irish half for most of the first half.

To the frustration of the large contingent of Exiles' supporters, when the visitors had possession they either kicked it away needlessly or compounded their problems by a high tally of unforced errors, exacerbated by poor discipline. Sure signs that the leadership on the pitch was not what it should be at this level. The result was an unsatisfactory spectacle in which the repeated outbreaks of ill discipline among the opposing packs did neither side credit.

Quins opened the scoring with a Malone penalty in the 11th minute after Irish were penalised for a late tackle on the fly half.

Irish expected to have an edge in the lineout and Nick Kennedy, making his 100th senior appearances, showed why he is the number one lineout stealer in the Premiership with three 'steals' in the opening quarter. More often than not the hard won possession was wasted through errors or poor discipline.

Tomas De Vedia, making his debut for Irish, denied Quins' a try in the 15th minute when he successfully held the ball up over the line. Seconds later David Paice was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle. The home side used their numerical advantage immediately to score their opening try through Ollie Kohn when he forced his way over off the back of a maul. Malone missed the conversion.

Jeremy Staunton scored his first official points for Irish with a penalty in the 19th minute. But it was the home team that were dictating the pace. A missed tackle in midfield allowed Jordan Turner-Hall to score his team's second try under the posts in the 27th minute, Malone added the extras for a 15-3 lead.

Fortunately for Irish Quins offended at the re-start and Staunton sent the resulting penalty between the posts. The score inspired Irish to their first sustained multi-phase period of possession. In the 36th minute Delon Armitage found himself with space to work in down the right wing. He had Topsy Ojo on his outside and only one defender in between them and the try line. Inexplicably, the full back decided to go for glory when the obvious thing was to pass to Ojo. Armitage was tackled and the chance was lost. Arguably, this was the turning point of the game. Instead of going in at the interval with the score at 15-13 Irish trailed 15-6 when referee Rowden blew for half-time.

Irish were to rue the missed opportunity when they fell further behind just three minutes after the re-start. Quins' right wing Tom Williams touched down a cross-field kick by Malone who added the conversion to stretch his side's lead to 22-6.

It took the Exiles eight minutes to recover through a David Paice try off the back of a rolling maul. Staunton added the extra points for a score of 22-13. Two minutes later however Malone had stretched the lead once again with his second penalty.

The Exiles continued to create problems for themselves through handling errors in midfield. Quins took every opportunity to keep the pressure on and it was no surprise when another deft chip over the defence by Malone was capitalised on by Hal Luscombe who scored under the posts for the try bonus point. Malone's conversion added the extras for a score of 32-13.

As the game entered its final quarter Irish introduced Steffon Armitage, Gary Johnson and Dominic Shabbo and all three were to make an impact. Jeremy Staunton was unlucky when he was beaten by the bounce after he blocked a Malone clearance.

Irish were finishing the stronger of the two teams. In the 70th minute Dominic Shabbo appeared to have scored but referee Rowden judged that he was just short of the try line. There was consolation for the Exiles when Steffon Armitage burst through to score under the posts three minutes later. Staunton converted to reduce the gap to 12 points.

Malone kicked his third penalty in the 75th minute. Irish had not given up. Shabbo was most unlucky when he appeared to have scored in the left corner but the video referee decided that he had knocked on before touching down. Whether it was frustration or determination Irish attacked again and a series of pick and go moves by the forwards saw Richard Thorpe cap a good game with a last minute try in the left corner. Staunton added the extras with a fine conversion taken five metres from the left touchline for a final score of 35-27.

While Irish will rue the missed chances, in their heart of hearts they will know that they didn't deserve to win. They will also know that there is much work to do before they face a strong Newcastle Falcons at Madejski Stadium next Sunday.

Scorers: NEC Harlequins: Tries: Kohn (16), Turner-Hall (2), Williams (43), Luscombe, (53); Conversions: Malone 3. Penalty goals: Malone 3 (11, 53, 75). London Irish: Tries: Paice (51), Armitage, S (73), Thorpe (79); Conversions: Staunton 3. Penalty goals: Staunton 2 (19, 29).

Scoring sequence (NEC Harlequins first): 3-0, 8-0, 8-3, 15-3, 15-6 (half-time) 22-6, 22-13, 25-13, 32-13, 32-20, 35-20, 35-27.

NEC Harlequins: M Brown (rep: W Skinner, 66), T Williams, H Luscombe, J Turner-Hall (rep: T Masson, 64), U Monye, C Malone, D Care (rep: S Keogh, 43), C Jones, A Croall (rep: C Laurent, 76), M Ross (rep: R Nebbett, 76), O Kohn (rep: N Spanghero, 74), J Evans, C Robshaw, P Volley(captain), T Guest (rep: P Davies, 53).

London Irish: D Armitage, T Ojo, M Ireland, N Mordt, T De Vedia (rep: D Shabbo, 62), J Staunton, P Hodgson (captain), T Lea'aetoa (rep: D Murphy, 60), D Paice (sin-bin: 16-26), F Rautenbach (rep: S Mackie, 76), N Kennedy, K Roche (rep: G Johnson, 62), D Danaher, R Thorpe (rep: S Mackie, 22-26), P Murphy (rep: S Armitage, 60).

Referee: Mr Ashley Rowden (RFU)

Match Statistics

27		35
T C P DG Player         Tonga Lea'aetoa 1       David Paice         Faan Rautenbach         Nick Kennedy         Kieran Roche         Declan Danaher 1       Richard Thorpe         Phil Murphy         Paul Hodgson   3 2   Jeremy Staunton         Tomas De Vedia         Nils Mordt         Mark Ireland         Topsy Ojo         Delon Armitage         Dan Murphy         Stuart Mackie         Gary Johnson 1       Steffon Armitage         Dominic Shabbo         Warren Fury         Shane Geraghty	Position 1. L/Prop 2. Hooker 3. T/Prop 4. Lock 5. Lock 6. B/Flanker 7. O/Flanker 8. No 8 9. Scrum-half 10. Fly-half 11. Wing 12. Centre 13. Centre 14. Wing 15. Fullback 16. Sub 17. Sub 18. Sub 19. Sub 20. Sub 21. Sub 22. Sub	Player T C P DG Ceri Jones         Aston Croall         Mike Ross         Ollie Kohn 1       Jim Evans         Chris Robshaw         Paul Volley         Tom Guest         Danny Care         Chris Malone   3 3   Ugo Moyne         Jordan Turner-Hall 1       Hal Luscombe 1       Tom Williams 1       Mike Brown         Christophe Laurent         Ricky Nebbett         Nicholas Spanghero         Phil Davies         Will Skinner         Simon Keogh         Tosh Masson