Three wins in a row for Harlequins as Gloucester are beaten at the Stoop
Harlequins came away with a 21-12 win against Gloucester at Twickenham Stoop as all points came in the first half.
With their third win in a row secured, Harlequins move up to third in the table, while failure to earn a losing bonus point sees Gloucester drop down to sixth.
The opening period was the most positive of the two for both teams, with three Harlequins tries from a Danny Care brace and a further from Dino Lamb. Gloucester scored twice with tries from Ben Morgan and Santiago Socino.
It remained scoreless in the second, with neither side being able to convert possession into points.
Quins started the game strongly, with their first try of the evening coming from Care dotting down at the back of a dominant rolling maul.
Irne Herbst released a spectacular overhead pass which lead to Quins earning a 5-metre line out. The subsequent attack saw Lamb score 19 minutes into the game.
Gloucester bit back with a classic cherry and white score as Ben Morgan dotted down from a strong driving maul fuelled by a 5-metre lineout.
The cherry and whites had a chance on the wing with Louis Rees-Zammit providing a scoring opportunity for Jake Morris.
A triumphant tackle from Quins full-back Nick David in the corner halted their momentum, driving Morris into touch.
Five minutes before the break, Gloucester’s Socino added another from their infamous driving maul to take the score up to 14-12 to the home side.
Quins however had the last word in the first half, and an excellent passage of link-up play from Alex Dombrandt, Andre Esterhuizen, and Cadan Murley took their team to within metres.
Danny Care spotted a gap in the defence and capitalised, crossing the line for his second of the evening in the 38th minute.
At halftime, the home side led 21-12.
The second half started slowly for both sides, and no further points were added in the remaining 40 minutes.
While not an attacking spectacle for the most part, strong defensive performances from both sides ensured that no further points were conceded.
61 minutes in Gloucester’s Jake Morris made a promising break on the wing, but the cherry and whites were halted once more by a try-saving tackle from David.
With ten minutes left to play, Jake Polledri came on to replace Ben Morgan, marking his return to premiership rugby for Gloucester following a staggering 26 months sidelined with a knee injury.
An electric break from Quins’ Murley on the wing looked as if it was set to light up the Stoop once more this season, however, it wasn’t to be as he was chased down by Gloucester’s defence with two minutes remaining on the clock.
Gloucester were reduced to fourteen men for the final minute of the game as Rees-Zammit left the field injured while they had a full complement of replacements already on the pitch.
At full-time, Harlequins had retained their halftime score to come out victorious.
Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson applauded his team’s performance against what he called “the best maul in Europe”.
He said: “It want to emphasise it was a really hard-fought four points for us. I think the scoreline was quite flattering.
“We seemed to repel them at the key moments when they got into our 22. They put us under immense pressure which made it really difficult.
“We’re really happy. We have got some bruised bodies and it took everything to get that one.”
In contrast, Gloucester head coach George Skivington explained his feelings towards the loss and the disappointment of not getting a losing bonus point.
“It’s very very frustrating and it’s a very frustrated changing room in there right now.
“Once we got into our phase shape, boys were trying to do things that we haven’t trained to do. There was an element where we got sucked into Quins’ world of offloads which they’re very very good at.
We saw a lot of that when we were 10 metres from their line and Quins defended it really well and knocked us back,” he said.
Nearing the closing stages, Gloucester had a penalty but opted to kick for the corner, something which cost them a possible losing bonus point.
“I’m not on the pitch making the decisions and the boys obviously wanted to back the maul. Watching that one back we certainly should have taken it.” Skivington commented.
Teams:
Harlequins:
15. Nick David 14. Cadan Murley 13. Joe Marchant 12. Andre Esterhuizen 11. Josh Bassett 10. Tommy Allan 9. Danny Care 1. Joe Marler 2. Jack Walker 3. Wilco Louw 4. Dino Lamb 5. Irne Herbst 6. Jack Kenningham 7. Will Evans 8. Alex Dombrandt (c)
Impact Players
16. George Head 17. Fin Baxter 18. Simon Kerrod 19. George Hammond 20. Archie White 21. Lewis Gjaltema 22. Will Edwards 23. Luke Northmore
Gloucester Rugby:
15. Lloyd Evans 14. Louis Rees-Zammit 13. Chris Harris 12. Billy Twelvetrees 11. Jake Morris 10. Santiago Carreras 9. Charlie Chapman 1. Val Rapava-Ruskin 2. Santiago Socino 3. Fraser Balmain 4. Freddie Clarke 5. Matias Alemanno 6. Ruan Ackermann 7. Lewis Ludlow 8. Ben Morgan
Replacements:
16. Jack Singleton 17. Harry Elrington 18. Ciaran Knight 19. Cam Jordan 20. Jake Polledri 21. Stephen Varney 22. George Barton 23. Jack Reeves
