It could have been worse, too.  Twice the Exiles knocked on over the line in the act of scoring.  Twice they were held up over the line.  Three last ditch tackles from Brown and Monye prevented almost certain scores.

Quins had opportunities for points. Nick Evans missed two penalties that were eminently kickable, aggravated his knee and the kicking duties passed to Mike Brown who missed two more less easy ones.  Hewat also missed two simple kicks at goal. Those all came in a first half that ended without score on either side, but was marked by a series of cheap shots from the Exiles.  Monye was deliberately upended as he jumped for a high ball.  Danny Care was high tackled as he tried to take a tap penalty.  Mike Brown was tackled late, long after the ball had gone. 

The referee failed to get a grip on an increasingly ugly physicality that was wholly misapplied.  It was not until almost half time that he took appropriate action and showed a yellow card to Tagicackibau for a deliberate trip on Care as he tried to take a tap penalty.

Despite being a man down, Irish managed a penalty from Delon Armitage to open the scoring and, eventually, when back to full complement James Hudson crossed for a try which Armitage converted to give the Exiles a 10 – 0 lead. 

Quins could not get a grip on their game despite valiant effort and substitutions.  Gomarsall and Luveniyali replaced Care and Evans, Mark Lambert replaced Mike Ross, Jim Evans replaced Percival, Botha and Guest replaced Fuga and Robshaw.  But all was in vain and any chance of a last-minute revival was killed off when a miss pass by Gomarsall to an apparent two man overlap was intercepted by Mike Catt who ran unchallenged to the posts.  Armitage’s conversion was a formality.

After the match, Dean Richards refused to criticise his side, which finished the Premiership table in second place.   "We had opportunities to get points on the board but didn't take them," he said. "We found ourselves 10 points down and started chasing the game which we didn't do very well at. "It might have been a totally different game had we taken those points at the start. That's life.

"We should have been more clinical but at the same time it's been a fantastic season and the boys have done extremely well. "I like to think this is just the beginning. We'll learn from today and we will be a better side next year."

So Harlequins’ most successful season in the professional era ended and we say farewell to some fine Harlequins as Andy Gomarsall, Mike Ross, Chris Malone and Charlie Amesbury move on.  There will, no doubt be others coming and going and if they give to Quins what those departing have done then the future will certainly be multi-coloured

Harlequins: M Brown; T Williams (DW Barry, 68), G Tiesi, J Turner-Hall, U Monye; N Evans (W Luveniyali, 61), D Care (A Gomarsall, 61); C Jones, T Fuga (G Botha, 53), M Ross (M Lambert, 70), J Percival (J Evans, 54), G Robson, C Robshaw (T Guest, 62), N Easter, W Skinner (capt).

London Irish: P Hewat; A Thompstone (T Homer, 61), D Armitage, S Mapusua (E Seveali'i, 70) S Tagicakibau; M Catt (P Richards, 76), P Hodgson; C Dermody, D Coetzee (J Buckland, 61), R Skuse (A Corbisiero, 49), N Kennedy (J Hudson, 26), B Casey (capt), D Danaher, C Hala'ufia (R Thorpe, 49), S Armitage.

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