A very late penalty by Jarvis brought the consolation losing bonus point.

From the start booth sides sought to attack but, with Irish having the bulk of the possession and the territory, play seemed to be almost entirely in the Quins half and for much of the time inside their twenty-two.  Irish probed and passed and passed and probed without penetration.  They dominated the lineout and the scrums were messy.  In the end they knocked-on, were turned over or passed into touch, made frenetic and frustrated by the tremendous defensive work of the Quins back row and the superb work of Ugo Monye and Tosh Masson in the centre.

Inevitably the penalty count against Quins rose as they withstood the Irish pressure but it was sixteen minutes before the Exiles opted to kick for goal, having tried the scrum and the lineout previously when they might have kicked. Unfortunately for them Hewat’s kick hit the post and rebound into play.  It was not until the thirty-fourth minute that the scoreboard ticked over as a penalty at a scrum allowed Jarvis a 40- metre kick at goal to put Quins 0 –3 into the lead entirely against the run of play.

The half ended with no further score.

The second half began with a change of referee as Sean Davey took over from an injured Chris White.  Nothing else changed as the pattern of the first half continued.  After four minutes Hewat had another penalty kick at goal and missed again and shortly after an injury saw Hewat replaced by Hickey whose more accurate kicking later saw the Irish score increase.

Irish were always dangerous in attack and the tackle of the match was made by Monye on Danaher as the speeding flanker stretched for the line in the corner only for the force of the tackle to dislodge the ball forward and put him into touch.

The pattern of the first half continued as Irish attacked, in one case ignoring a three man overlap, and Quins defended and then Mike Brown fell victim to the yellow card for coming round the side of a ruck and Hickey levelled the score at 3 – 3 with only fifteen minutes remaining.  But Quins conceded another penalty as Ross came through the middle of a ruck quite properly but was penalised for apparently tackling the scrum half without the ball, although Richards appeared to have his hands on it at the base of the ruck.  With only eight minutes remaining Irish took the lead from Hickey’s successful kick 6 – 3.

Almost immediately Quins, too, had a penalty that Jarvis attempted from 45 metres but missed.  The Exiles attacked again and a distinctly forward pass from Mapasua found Ojo who evaded So’oialo’s tackle and crossed for the decisive score.  Hickey’s conversion was good and Irish led by ten points. But only a few minutes remained if Quins were to salvage anything.  That they did so was due to very late tackle from their skipper Bob Casey that gave Adrian Jarvis the opportunity to kick a 40-metre penalty to salvage the bonus point.

So, after a disappointing game, Quins remain 3^rd at the moment but their chances of a top four finish now rest on winning the remaining games against Sale and Leicester. At least Heineken Cup participation is probably safe.

London Irish: P Hewat (E Hickey 48); T Ojo, P Richards, S Mapusua, S Tagicakibau; S Geraghty, P Hodgson (N Mort 65); D Murphy (T Lea'aetoa 55), D Paice (D Coetzee 54), F Rautenbach (P Murphy 69), J Hudson, B Casey (capt), D Danaher (J Leguizamon 54) S Armitage, R Thorpe (G Johnson 74).
Sin-bin: Casey 79.

Harlequins: M Brown; D Strettle, U Monye, T Masson (De Wet Barry 72), T Williams (S So'oialo 63); A Jarvis, D Care; C Jones, G Botha (T Fuga 73), M Ross, O Kohn (J Evans 63), G Robson, C Robshaw, W Skinner (capt), N Easter (T Guest 68).
Sin-bin: Brown 66-78.

Referee: C White (RFU) (S. Davey 40)

Attendance: 10,324

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