Matson reacts to latest Harlequins flop as rot sets in

Head coach Tabai Matson accepted Harlequins were now a mid-table team after seeing them crash to a fourth straight league defeat as London Irish triumphed 42-24 before a crowd of over 13,000.

Quins were not helped by the 22nd-minute dismissal of captain Stephan Lewies for a head-high challenge on Chandler Cunningham-South and from that point on they were always fighting a losing battle.

Irish capitalised with wing Michael Dykes scoring a hat-trick of tries, only the third player to score three on his Premiership debut.

Cunningham-South, Tom Pearson and James Stokes were also on the try-scoring sheet with Paddy Jackson converting all six.

Quins’ response was a penalty try award and tries from Tommy Allan, Dino Lamb and Josh Bassett. Allan also added a conversion.

Matson said: “When you have a home side raring to go and you are not at your best, you are going to get punished.

“We exited poorly straight from the kick-off to give them a flying start and they are a difficult side to contain and it shows that there are now no poor teams in the Premiership.

“Even though we had 14 players on the field, we scored some decent tries and it was a nice comeback but it was too little too late and we are dropping down the ladder, so we are now a mid-table team.

“We have to focus on how we get back to playing well but we did defend courageously with numbers down, but to concede 42 points is pretty tough.

“I have no complaints about the sending-off, when I saw it I knew it was probably going to be a red but contact in the breakdown is difficult to regulate and much harder than in the tackle area.”

London Irish head coach Les Kiss said: “We owed ourselves that performance against them but the competition is very tough and every single point counts.

“I’m a little disappointed that we gave them a bonus point but there was still some heroic defence at times and we managed to keep a decent gap between the scores.

“The breakdown is a very challenging area and although it was a rugby incident, I thought the officials went through the correct process to arrive at the right decision as players’ safety is paramount.”

Irish were unfortunate to lose Australian lock Adam Coleman to a shoulder injury but on the plus side, Henry Arundell made a welcome return to action after surgery following an injury back in September.

Kiss said: “Adam’s gone to hospital and it didn’t look good and to lose him would be a massive blow to us.

“The return of Henry was something we’ve all been waiting for and today he showed us a couple of pieces of his talent.”