Harlequins continued their recent revival to haul themselves off the bottom of
the Zurich Premiership table with victory over Leeds Tykes at The Stoop.
It was their third-successive victory after ending their appalling run of nine
straight defeats with wins over Saracens and Sale in the previous fortnight.
Victory enabled them to move above Northampton, beaten at Newcastle today, and
Worcester.
Samoan-born Tani Fuga, Steve So'oialo and flanker Nick Easter scored the Quins
tries with Irish fly-half Jeremy Staunton kicking 14 points and his replacement
Andy Dunne landing their final conversion.
Leeds replied with tries from left wing David Rees and centre Chris Bell, both
converted by former England full-back Tim Stimpson, who also landed a penalty.
However, it was Stimpson's failure to find touch which led to Quins taking the
lead after 17 minutes.
His kick flew straight into the arms of right-wing George Harder who collected
gratefully and ran hard before sending hooker Fuga over in the left-hand corner
for an unconverted try.
Stimpson made partial amends by landing a penalty, cancelled out by one from
Staunton, converting after Chris Bell burst through the Harlequins defence to
put Rees over near to the left corner flag.
But Staunton landed a penalty on the stroke of half-time to send Harlequins in
11-10 ahead, and they never lost their grip on the match.
Staunton landed another penalty in the 42nd minute and converted when So'oialo
grabbed an opportunist try on the hour mark.
Leeds were penalised defending an aggressive Harlequins maul and the
scrum-half capitalised with a quickly-taken penalty to squeeze over for his
side's second touchdown.
After Staunton's fourth penalty, another powerful rolling maul resulted in
Harlequins driving Easter over for their third try, converted by Dunne.
Almost immediately Leeds kicked back with a runaway try by Bell, converted by
Stimpson, but it was too little too late.
Harlequins were good value for a win which would have been even more emphatic
but for a stout defensive display by Leeds.
Fuga was denied a second try when he was hauled down just inches from the
Leeds line and they also repelled powerful runs by back-row men Tony Diprose,
Easter and winger Harder.
Harlequins threw everything into attack in the final minute in the search for
a fourth try, which would have given them an important bonus point, but Leeds
kept them out.
Teams
Harlequins: Williams, Harder, James, Deane, Keogh, Staunton,
So'oialo, Worsley, Fuga, Jones, Winters, Miall, Easter, Vos,
Diprose.
Replacements: Duffy for Williams (74), Monye for Harder (63),
Dunne for Staunton (74), Dawson for Worsley (76),
Hayter for Fuga (73), Maling for Miall (63),
Sherriff for Diprose (73).
Tries: Fuga, So'oialo, Easter.
Cons: Staunton, Dunne.
Pens: Staunton 4.
Leeds: Stimpson, Balshaw, Bell, Snyman, Rees, Wright, Dickens,
Shelley, Regan, Gerber, Morgan, Palmer, Uys, Hyde, Rigney,
Dunbar.
Replacements: Biggs for Balshaw (73),
Christophers for Wright (61), Rawlinson for Regan (69),
Dunbar for Hyde (40), Murphy for Dunbar (54).
Not Used: Holt, McMillan.
Tries: Rees, Bell.
Cons: Stimpson 2.
Pens: Stimpson.
Att: 6,447
Ref: Roy Maybank (Kent).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook