A late try by England centre Will Greenwood enabled Harlequins to take a
nine-point lead into the deciding second leg of their Parker Pen Challenge Cup
semi-final in Galway in two weeks' time.
But a spirited display by the Irish side, who beat three French teams on their
way to the last four, kept them in touch with their English opponents.
Three-quarters Mel Deane, George Harder and Ugo Monye scored the other three
Harlequins tries with Greenwood the architect-in-chief as he provided the final
passes to send in both Deane and Monye.
Quins' other 11 points came from the boot of Paul Burke, their Ireland A
fly-half who marked his return from a shoulder injury with two penalties, a
conversion and an eighth-minute drop goal.
Harlequins should have had more to show for their first-half forward supremacy
than an 11-10 interval lead.
After centre Mark McHugh opened the scoring with a 45-metre opener in the
second minute the Connacht pack struggled to contain Quins who were unlucky not
to add to their only first-half try - by Deane - in the 17th minute when
Greenwood's perfectly-placed kick to the left-hand corner bounced badly for
Monye, denying him an almost certain touchdown as the Connacht defence had time
to regroup.
Connacht got within a point of Harlequins in the third minute of first half
injury time. After McHugh missed two kickable penalties, they opted to go for
touch twice in quick succession just before half-time and the ploy paid off with
a forward drive which took flanker Matt Lacey over for his side's only try.
Former Ireland fly-half Eric Elwood took over the kicking to land the
conversion.
Elwood then kicked four second-half penalties from four attempts to keep
Connacht just four points adrift with five minutes to go.
But when Italian referee Giulio de Santis finally ran out of patience and
sin-binned Connacht replacement lock Mike McCarthy in the 78th minute Harlequins
launched a final push to stretch their lead to nine points.
They made their extra-man advantage tell with Burke placing a penalty into the
corner. His side won the lineout and moved the ball across the pitch, stretching
the Connacht defence to breaking point for Greenwood to dive in for his
unconverted try.
TeamsHarlequins: Duffy, Harder, Greenwood, Deane, Monye, Burke,
Keogh, Worsley, Fuga, Dawson, Miall, Evans, Winters, Vos,
Diprose.
Replacements: Willis for Deane (67), Jones for Worsley (67),
Davison for Evans (67).
Not Used: Hayter, Gomez, Sheriff, Dunne.
Tries: Deane, Harder, Monye, Greenwood.
Cons: Burke.
Pens: Burke 2.
Drop Goals: Burke.
Connacht: Mostyn, McPhillips, Yapp, McHugh, Munn, Elwood,
Walls, McFarland, Jackman, Clarke, Browne, Farley, Swift,
Lacey, O'Sullivan.
Replacements: Moore for Mostyn (82), O'Loughlin for Walls (69),
Bracken for Clarke (51), McCarthy for Browne (63).
Not Used: Fogarty, Neville, Robinson.
Tries: Lacey.
Cons: Elwood.
Pens: McHugh, Elwood 4.
Att: 8,350
Ref: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales).
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