Northampton moved into fourth place in the Zurich Premiership and secured a
bonus point deep into injury time to keep alive their Heineken Cup qualification
hopes.
They eventually secured the extra point seven minutes into injury time but the
match appeared to turn on referee Robin Goodliffe's decision at the end of an
error-strewn first half.
Neither side had looked capable of scoring a try as they took it in turns to
spill possession in the wet conditions.
But Northampton, trailing 6-3, were literally handed the lead with an incident
which resulted in number eight Tony Diprose protesting vigorously as the teams
left the pitch at half-time.
Harlequins full-back Nathan Williams was judged to have wilfully knocked the
ball down as he tackled Saints flanker Andrew Blowers who was trying to get his
pass away.
The referee had no doubt it was a deliberate knock-on and England scrum-half
Matt Dawson gratefully added the conversion from in front of the post to send
his side in with a 10-6 advantage.
Northampton capitalised by increasing their lead when prop Brett Sturgess
drove over from close range in the 50th minute with his last touch of the ball
before being withdrawn.
The decision had already been taken to replace Sturgess with Kelvin Todd and
has he trooped off Dawson landed his second conversion to stretch the lead to
17-6.
After Paul Burke briefly cut the gap with his third penalty, Northampton
struck again as they took advantage of a huge hole in the Harlequins defence.
A two-handed overhead pass from fly-half Paul Grayson gave full-back Nick Beal
the space to link up and run through unchallenged down the right before turning
in to touch down behind the posts and leave Dawson his third simple conversion.
Harlequins tried to strike back in the closing stages and England wing Dan
Luger, who could be on his way to French side Perpignan in the summer, looked
odds-on for a try after he stepped inside two Northampton players before looking
for support rather than breaking for the line.
But the pressure paid off when referee Goodliffe equalled the penalty try
count by awarding one to Harlequins in the 75th minute when Northampton flanker
Darren Fox was judged to have kicked the ball out of a scrum.
Burke converted and then kicked a superb 40-metre drop goal to cut the
Northampton lead to 24-19 but the visitors struck again deep into injury time to
secure their bonus point and deny Harlequins a consolation one.
In the seventh minute of injury time Grayson's high kick found England left
wing Ben Cohen who, despite being tackled just short of the line, turned the
ball inside for replacement Mark Tucker to dive over for a try, to which Dawson
added his fourth conversion.
It crowned a much-improved second half but provided little cheer for
Harlequins.
Former Ireland captain Keith Wood, who is leaving the club at the end of an
injury-plagued season, had received the loudest cheers before a lacklustre first
half as he led the side out for the final time.
Teams:
Harlequins: N. Williams, Luger, Greenwood, Deane, Gollings,
Burke, Bemand, Jones, Fuga, Dawson, Davison, Miall, Winters,
Vos, Diprose.
Replacements: Hayter, Starr, Rudzki, Sheriff, Gomez, M. Powell,
Jewell.
Tries: Penalty.
Cons: Burke.
Pens: Burke 3.
Drop Goals: Burke.
Northampton: Beal, Ripol, Jorgensen, Leslie, Cohen, Grayson,
Dawson, Sturgess, Thompson, Morris, Lord, Connors, Fox,
Pountney, Blowers.
Replacements: Miles, Todd, Hunter, Seely, Brooks, Tucker,
Sleightholme.
Tries: Penalty, Sturgess, Beal, Tucker.
Cons: Dawson 4.
Pens: Grayson.
Att: 6,423
Ref: R Goodliffe (Sheffield (RFU)).
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