They put themselves in with the chance of a semi-final place, equal on match points with Cardiff Blues but well behind on tries scored, the appropriate criterion in the event of match points being equal.

They had some help from an excellent 80-metre interception try from Sam Smith and three penalties and a conversion from the boot of Nick Evans.  That Ryan Lamb missed two penalties and the conversion of both the Exiles’ tries was of considerable assistance.

Apart from one spell of rather poor aimless kicking back and forth both sides tried to play rugby.  Irish moved the ball about efficiently, determined to get Ojo and Tagicakibau attacking in the wide channels.  Hard as they tried, the Harlequin defence stood firm and both wingers were kept firmly in check. 

Harlequins took the lead after only four minutes from Evans’ first penalty and he added a second after twenty minutes.  But Quins were having trouble at the scrum, with the referee apparently finding fault on almost every occasion. Fortunately, Lamb having missed with his first penalty attempt that hit the post, Irish opted thereafter to kick to touch in the hope of forcing a try.

When Irish had a good attacking lineout in the Quins twenty-two they caught and drove well.  They were held out about ten metres from the Quins’ line. A penalty kick in front of the posts was declined as they opted for another scrum.  This time the ball was moved left and only a try-saving tackle into touch saved the score.  Another attacking scrum soon followed but then a free kick allowed Quins to clear.

With Irish again on the attack as the half was nearing the end, a pass from Hewat meant for Ojo was intercepted by Smith who ran the length of the pitch to touch down under the posts. Evans added the simple conversion.

A late tackle on Lamb resulted in Turner-Hall being sent to the bin, but Lamb again missed with the penalty attempt.  A couple of minutes later, from only just inside the Irish half, Nick Evans slotted another penalty opening up a 16 point to nil lead. Finally, well into injury time, Lamb opted to make another attempt to kick a penalty.  He again hit the post but the ball went through the uprights with the last kick of the half.

Almost immediately, as the second half started, Irish were awarded a penalty.  Their attacking intention was clear as the tap and go was intended but only a knock on resulted.  Nevertheless Irish kept trying to attack and the pressure they applied was considerable.  Harlequins resisted stoutly but eventually the pressure told and after seventeen minutes Joseph crossed for the Exiles’ first try.  Once again Lamb’s kick slewed wide leaving the Exiles still needing two scores for the win.

Following a somewhat pointless series of kicks and mass replacements, Evans missed with a difficult long kick at goal and Irish redoubled their attacks which kept play mostly in the Harlequin half of the pitch.  A scrum deep in Quins’ twenty-two produced a penalty to Irish and another scrum and another penalty together with a yellow card for Aston Croall.  Ceri Jones returned as a front row replacement and this time the penalty at the scrum went to Quins!

There was still time for one last attack as Irish moved the ball about with purpose and eventually in injury time they scored in the right corner, Joseph touching down for his second try.  With the last kick of the match the conversion, largely irrelevant, missed and Quins’ supporters could breathe a sigh of relief mingled with some pleasure at the win.

It was a relieved John Kingston who faced the press, "We identified from last week's debris that we had two choices," he said.

"One was to carry on feeling sorry for ourselves and allow our season to drift by but we identified how long there was left of the season, down to the number of days, and what we can achieve is still a huge amount.

"We can only deal with what's going forward and we talked all week about this being the first day of the rest of our season and to that end it's a good start. I was really pleased with the defensive statement of the group.”

London Irish: P Hewat (rep: J Lennard, 71); T Ojo, J Joseph, M Catt (rep: J Rudd, 71), S Tagicakibau; R Lamb, P Richards (rep: A Lalanne, 65); D Murphy (rep: M Lahiff, 69), J Buckland (rep: D Coetzee, 74), P Ion (rep: J Tideswell, 74), G Johnson, A Perry (rep: J Gibson, 65), K Roche, R Thorpe (rep: M Garvey, 40+1), G Stowers.

Harlequins: M Brown; G Lowe, G Tiesi, J Turner-Hall (sin-bin, 32-42), S Smith; N Evans, K Dickson (rep: S So’oialo, 69); C Jones (rep: A Croall, 61; sin-bin, 78), M Cairns (rep: C Brooker, 43), J Andress (rep: J Johnston, 61), J Percival (rep: T Vallejos, 61), L Stevenson, C York (rep: L Wallace, 61; rep: C Jones, 78), N McMillan, T Guest.

Referee: M Fox (England).

Attendance: 10,030.

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