By Alanquin
October 27 2014
A second pool victory in the new European Rugby Champions Cup, this time over Wasps by 16 – 23 at Wycombe, put Harlequins firmly on course to qualify for the knockout stages with home and away encounters with Leinster to provide the main obstacle to progress.
Harlequins’ intentions were clear from the first minute when a scrum on the Quins’ five-metre line on Wasps’ ball was sent backwards at a rate of knots, earning a penalty and relieving danger. Goode and Evans exchanged penalties to start the scoreboard moving and Evans kicked a second to take the lead. A fine break by Ward from Lowe’s pass took play deep into Wasps’ twenty-two and as the ball was moved right, there was Charlie Matthews galloping towards the posts for a seeming certain try, only to be held up under the posts.
Wasps mounted a rare sortie into Quins’ twenty-two and there was Joe Simpson scampering over fir a try having ripped the ball away from Wallace. Goode added the extras and Wasps led 10 - 6 after half an hour.
Harlequins’ response was almost immediate as they swept up field in a move started by Yarde and Tikoirotuma and when stopped the ball came left through four more pairs of hands until Brown put Matthews away in acres of space for a good try. Evans followed with an excellent conversion and Harlequins led 10 -13 at the interval.
An early penalty kick allowed Evans to extend the lead. But two penalties saw Goode bring the home team to level the scores as the game reached the last quarter. Then Wasps had a scrum five metres from their line and found their pack driven off their own ball and Quins had the penalty. With calm deliberation Robshaw opted for another scrum. As the Quins forwards again drove the Wasps pack backwards towards their line the penalty try decision of the referee was inevitable, as was the match result too.
With inevitable pragmatism closed the game out to stay top of Pool 2.
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