By AlanQuin
October 22 2011

Edgeley Park, Stockport is an inhospitable, ramshackle football ground in a forbidding part of Greater Manchester.  On a chilly Friday evening arriving there following a lengthy and frustrating battle with motorway traffic is one of the less appealing aspects of following Harlequins.  Pretty few followers of either team turned up and less than five thousand spectators left the place looking bare.  

The LV= Cup is a peculiar and little loved competition.  You can reach the semi-final without winning a pool match and even if you win all of these matches you may only be second in the pool.  When you take into account that Harlequins have never won there for almost as long as Sale have played there, the runes were not favourable. The great question was could Harlequins make it eight successive victories?  Amazingly they could and they returned down the M6 victors by 25 – 37.

After an early ineffective kicking ping-pong duel, the first opportunity for points fell to the home side from a penalty just inside Quins’ half, but Nick MacCleod’s kick swerved wide. Harlequins responded with attack and pace and eventually Clegg moved the ball wide finding Stegmann at speed for the winger’s first try of the evening and Clegg coolly added the conversion from wide out.

Both sides were attempting to play with pace and on both sides there were inevitable errors. Having missed with his first kick, MacCleod spurned two further chances and chose to find touch in the Quins’ twenty-two for his forwards to catch and drive for the line.  Despite massive pressure on the Quins’ line the defence was good enough to hold the Sale forwards at bay and eventually clear their line.

On twenty-five minutes a long delay following an injury to Tom Casson ended with his being stretchered off and replaced by Matt Hopper.  From the scrum which restarted the game Quins attempted to race away in attack but possession was lost to an interception by Sale who then lost the ball in a tackle.  In a stroke of opportunism it was picked up by Tom Williams who was able to run fifty metres unopposed under the posts for the try.  Clegg added the simple conversion. 0 – 14 after twenty-eight minutes.

A penalty allowed Sale to open their account with three points and soon afterwards a break away from a quickly taken penalty found their winger, Will Addison, racing  flat out round the defence that had been caught napping, for Sale’s first try converted by MacCleod.  That score injected great confidence into the home side and they were immediately on attack.  A penalty was kicked to touch deep in the Quins twenty-two and from the lineout. 

Once again Sale forwards were camped on the Quins’ line and despite firm resistance, when the ball was moved to the left there was a gap for the prop, Dickenson to flop over from a metre. The conversion failed.  At the time and throughout this passage of play Joe Gray was flat on the ground on the twenty-two receiving treatment and looking a candidate to follow Casson on the stretcher. Sale consequently led 15 – 14 at the break.

Harlequins started the second half with clear determination and good breaks by first Chisholm and then Hopper showed clear intent.  Then the ball was moved rapidly right and there was Seb Stegmann to cross for his second try.    Clegg easily converted and Quins led 15 – 21.

MacCleod and Clegg each took the opportunity to kick penalties taking the score to 18 – 24 and Sale made mass substitutions, virtually emptying their bench.  Then, as Sale attacked again, an exquisitely timed pass found Cueto and he was able to put Leota in for a try and MacCleod added the conversion and Sale were back in the lead by a single point, 25 – 24.

Two penalties, successfully kicked by Clegg, one from the halfway line saw Quins back in the lead.  MacCleod had missed with a penalty attempt.   Harlequins made substitutions with Sam Smith replacing Tom Williams and Luke Wallace for Fa’asavalu.  Then, with seven minutes remaining, another Quins’ attack broke away from a scrum led by Skinner. Good ball handling continued the attack and passed out to Stegmann for the winger to complete his hat-trick with a bonus point try.  Clegg completed an immaculate kicking display by adding the conversion.

During the remaining few minutes Sale threw everything at Harlequins with their forwards trying to batter their way across in the face of superb defence.  They did not cross and the final whistle brought that eighth victory by 25 – 37.

After the game a delighted Conor O’Shea said   "We've set a challenge to some of the young guys in the last couple of weeks to keep the momentum going. Not in terms of winning but about putting on to the pitch what Harlequins are like as a team. There were times when we went away from that as you would expect young sides to do, but the fact that we kept our composure and kept on playing was great."

O'Shea was loathe to pick out any individuals but he reserved special praise for number eight Joe Trayfoot, who never took a backward step all night saying "Joe's performance was magnificent and it was very nice to keep the momentum going. Exeter at home in the Aviva Premiership is a massively difficult game but selection is going to be interesting."