By AlanQuin
December 14 2009

A poor crowd turned out at The Stoop for a 12.45 p.m. start on a Sunday, voting with their absence against the regime imposed by the great god television.  The match being shown on Sky and Quins lowly position in the Pool further influenced the attendance.. 

The absentees missed an entertaining rugby match with seven tries, unfortunately with Quins on the losing end, as Sale won by 19 – 29, extinguishing any faint hopes Harlequins may have had of progress in the Cup.

In what seems to be a regular occurrence and for the third time in as many matches, only five minutes had been played before Quins leaked a first try to their opponents. The visitors capitalised with a sharp counter-attack from a high ball and with a fine flowing move, involving quick passing and good support, put Peel in for the try that Hodgson converted.

Barely another five minutes had elapsed before Sale scored again.  This time their hooker, Briggs, taking an inside ball, found a gap in the Quins’ defensive line with Macleod, the full back, in support to score the second try.  Hodgson again added the conversion. 

Fourteen points down left Quins with a mountain to climb.  They were disrupting Sale’s lineout and were causing problems to their scrum.  When Sale had possession they kicked rather too much away.  Quins, however, were unable to capitalise until Nick Evans produced another of his moments of magic with a great individual try. Running at the defence, Evans chipped over Cueto, gathered the ball and with Tiesi on his shoulder touched down behind the posts and added the simple conversion.  Nineteen minutes gone and 7 – 14 gave Harlequins hope

Within a minute, those hopes were dashed as Nick Easter lost the restart ball in the bright afternoon sun and dropped it for Seymour to gather and go under the posts for the try.  Hodgson again added the points.

Now Sale were in pursuit of their bonus point with barely a quarter of the match gone. They might have had the score as another flowing move saw Tait bundled into touch a couple of metres short of the line and another attack foundered as Mike Brown got a fingertip to deflect what would otherwise have been a scoring pass.  Then Quins  finally struck as a fine move saw Brooker’s pass put David Strettle into the corner for a try.  Evans’ kick missed from the touchline.

With time running out, a penalty at a scrum allowed Hodgson too add another three points with the final kick of the half to make the score 12 – 24.

Quins started the second half with clear determination to score and it took them barely three minutes as they moved the ball about skilfully, offloading from the tackle and changing the point of attack and gaining ground into the Sale twenty-two.  Then a fine break by Brooker was stopped only five metres short.  Further thrusts from Lowe, Easter, Robson and other forwards took Quins to the line and Easter burrowed through to score.  Evans converted and at 19 – 24 Quins appeared to have chances of victory.

But Sale were not done as they again counter-attacked from a ball kicked deep as Quins tried to find another hole in the visitors’ defences.  Cueto and Hodgson started the move which Seymour, Tait and finally Ben Cohen finished with a fine try in the left corner.  The conversion was missed. 

Thirty minutes still remained during which Harlequins pounded the Sale defence.  The Quins forwards dominated the scrum and for long minutes were camped on the Sale line.  A near score by Strettle was held up over the line by Cohen among others and again the Quins forwards drove for the line..  The Sale defence proved impenetrable as Quins tried valiantly.   Easter finally crossed only to be held up again.

Finally Fuga lost the ball forward as he went for the line and Wrigglesworth cleared. Thereafter Sale ran down the clock.

This was a match that was a pleasure to watch, as it nearly always is when you have two good teams determined to play rugby.  Later John Kingston Harlequins head coach John Kingston warned that Quins will not grant Sale a soft return match despite today’s result.

Kingston said: "It was win or bust. We gave away so many soft tries in the first half that we had to really go for it in the second. We were asleep first half? I don't know, but I do know we conceded a lot of soft points. We spoke at the break not about mistakes but about reminding the boys that what we'd seen is not us and that we'd switched off at times.

"They had four chances and they scored four tries. It's been a massively disappointing Heineken Cup campaign, but we should warn Sale that we won't travel all the way up there next weekend without being competitive. We don't want them to win again and feel they've got a hold over us when we meet in the league on New Year's Day.

"When we got to the tournament we were reminded of the sad gremlins of the summer, but two of the better games in the Heineken Cup have been here, against Toulouse and now Sale."

Kingston also refuted suggestions in some quarters that the current rules favour defensive rugby.  "The rugby we saw today proves again, as we did against Gloucester, that saying people cannot play rugby under the existing rules is hogwash."