Vintage Danny Care performance sees Harlequins down Gloucester
Danny Care produced a man of the match performance as Harlequins sent Gloucester crashing to a third consecutive league defeat with a 21-12 victory at the Stoop.
The veteran scrum-half scored two of his side’s three tries to send the majority of a capacity crowd home happy as Gloucester followed up losses to Sale and Newcastle with another disappointing performance in an error-ridden game.
Harlequins’ win moves them up to third in the Premiership table and the four points gained could ultimately prove crucial in their quest for a play-off spot at the end of the season with Gloucester, one of their main rivals, losing ground by taking nothing from the match.
Dino Lamb was also on the try-scoring sheet for Harlequins with Tommy Allan converting all three.
Ben Morgan and Santiago Socino touched down for Gloucester with Santiago Carreras adding one conversion, as all the scoring took place in the first half.
Quins turned down chances to kick two early penalties in favour of attacking line-outs and were rewarded when Care forced his way over after eight minutes.
Gloucester struggled to get a foothold in the match, the concession of frequent penalties not helping their cause, and it came as no surprise when they fell further behind to a try from Lamb after his second-row partner Irne Herbst had created the opportunity with a quick off-load.
The visitors badly needed a response and they got one from their forte, a driving line-out which ended with Morgan crashing over.
The try was the catalyst for the Cherry and Whites pack to dominate the second quarter and they looked set for a second try when Jake Morris collected a superb cross-field kick from Louis Rees-Zammit but an excellent cover tackle from Quins full-back Nick David thwarted the Gloucester wing.
However, they were not denied for long as, moments later, Socino finished off another unstoppable line-out drive.
Back came Quins with a quick response. Captain Alex Dombrandt played a leading part in a flowing move which culminated with Care spotting a gap to dart over for his second score. Allan was again on target with the conversion to give his side a 21-12 interval lead.
Gloucester controlled the opening period of the second half but they lacked a cutting edge and were forced to introduce scrum-half Stephen Varney and centre Jack Reeves to try and improve their attacking potency.
A featureless third quarter finished scoreless as David brought off another excellent tackle by hauling down Morris, who had intercepted the ball inside his own 22 but lacked the speed to evade the cover defence.
Cadan Murley threatened to get the scoreboard moving for the second half with a thrilling burst but Rees-Zammit showed his mettle to race back and save the day, before the Wales wing was forced to leave the field with an injury to complete a miserable night for Gloucester.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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