Last night’s visitors were less skilful and much less formidable so that the match was almost one-sided. Although Connacht opened the scoring with a penalty after 9 minutes it took Quins only a couple of minutes to equalize with a similar penalty easily slotted by Chris Malone making his debut for Harlequins. Thereafter Quins continued to add to their score at regular intervals while it was not until the last minute that Connacht manufactured a try from a quick tapped penalty close to the Quins’ line.

In addition to the interest in Malone, the return from injury of Jordan Turner-Hall was a welcome sight, as was the newly signed Christophe Laurent, recently of Bayonne, signed as cover in view of Tani Fuga’s late call-up for Samoa at the World Cup.

Quins started of at great pace, moving the ball rapidly through the hands as the backs sought a way through the visitors’ defences. The forwards, too, sought to emulate them with Robshaw and Guest and Volley particularly involved although many moves ended in loss of the ball in contact or other unforced errors. Almost from the kick-off, in Quins’ first attack Ugo Monye was hit by two defenders and clearly lost consciousness. He was able, eventually, to walk from the field and was replaced by Tosh Masson. He too was himself injured, after only fifteen minutes, losing a tooth in a collision, and was replaced by Amesbury.

Both sides were strong in defence, with Quins not giving their opponents room to run, tackling hard, and working energetically at the breakdown. The Quins’ scrum was working well but the lineout rather less so. Then after some twenty-two minutes play, a superb catch by Turner-Hall of a high up and under from Malone and a good drive forward by him with Danny Care in support took play almost across the Connacht line. Care was adjudged to have been held up and a five metre attacking scrum saw the visitors pushed back, conceding a penalty in the process. Quins called another scrum and although the visitors again were going backwards they managed to disrupt the forward movement. Danny Care, however, picked up and wriggled through to score the try which Malone converted, stretching the lead to 10 – 3.

Connacht did make some attempts at attack. Poor handling in defence gave them a scrum five metres out but it was Quins who were awarded a penalty for an infringement at the set piece. Quins continued to attack, with Turner-Hall clearly relishing his return to playing as he put himself about in no uncertain manner, frequently being at the heart of the Quins attacks and making good territorial inroads into Connacht territory.

Quins continued to exert pressure and look for elusive tries. Keogh caught a fine cross kick to the wing but he was stopped only feet short of the line. There was just time for Malone to add another penalty kick, making the score at 13 – 3 at half-time.

The visitors made a mass subtitution of six players at half-time with Quins merely replacing Mike Ross with Ricky Nebbett. Then another well-taken penalty kick was easily slotted through the posts by Malone to increase the lead after only three minutes of the half to 16 – 3. Phil Davies replaced Tom Guest. After a quarter of an hour another penalty saw Malone add another three points. Quins continued to put pressure on the visitor’s defence and a “try” from a charge down and chase was disallowed for a knock-on.

More substitutions brought Seb Jewell in place of Turner-Hall and Seb Stegmann in pace of Danny Care with Keogh moving to scrum-half. John Brooks replaced Nebbett and then Evans and Croall were replaced by Spanghero and Laurent.

With some 10 minutes remaining, Malone intercepted a Connacht pass and set of for the try-line. Although he did not have the speed to evade the defender’s tackle, he was able to offload to Stegmann who duly scored the try. Mike Brown converted as Ryan Manyika replaced Malone. Robson replaced Robshaw.

Although the game was well won long before the final whistle, Quins pressure continued unabated. They forced a five metre scrum which nearly pushed Connacht back over their line, collapsing just short of the line. In the ensuing melee, Paul Volley dived over for the try. Brown’s conversion attempt failed.

Despite trailing 31 – 3, Connacht went back on to the offensive. They forced their way into the Quins’ twenty-two where they gained a penalty. The quickly tapped penalty allowed Colm Rigney to charge through a rare gap in the Quins’ defence to score. The conversion attempt was missed leaving the final score 31- 8.

Speaking after the game, head coach Andy Friend, said that the pre-season matches had gave the players an opportunity to put a performance on the park although they had not expected to have that many injuries. The fact that some had not played in these games did not rule them out of selection for the game against London Irish next week.

On the subject of the game against Connacht, he said “We had a real focus tonight on two things. The first was our defence, which I thought was excellent. The other was our discipline. At half-time the penalty count was 11 – 5 in our favour. Those were the key things we focussed on and I thought we did well on them.”

Asked about Ugo Monye, he said that he would be all right. He would have to do the necessary tests following loss of consciousness but should pass those without trouble. Asked about playing the winger at centre. “I think he has done pretty well at centre”, he said. “The beauty of it is that it gives us other options.”

He was pleased too with Malone’s control of the game and his kicking and thought

Christophe Laurent had done pretty well after only arriving the previous day.”

Harlequins
15. Mike Brown, 14. Tom Williams, 13. Ugo Monye, 12. Jordan Turner-Hall, 11. Simon Keogh, 10. Chris Malone, 9. Danny Care, 1. Ceri Jones, 2. Aston Croall, 3. Mike Ross, 4. Ollie Kohn, 5. Jim Evans, 6. Chris Robshaw, 7. Paul Volley (Capt.), 8. Tom Guest.
Replacements: 16. Christophe Laurent, 17. John Brooks, 18. Ricky Nebbett, 19. Nicolas Spanghero, 20. George Robson, 21. Phil Davies, 22. Seb Jewell, 23. Tosh Masson, 24. Charlie Amesbury, 25. Seb Stegmann, 26. Ryan Manyika

Referee: Ashley Rowden (RFU)

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