| Harlequins: (21) 21 |
| Tries: Care 2, Lamb Cons: Allan 3 |
| Gloucester: (12) 12 |
| Tries: Morgan, Soccino Con: Carreras |
Harlequins secured their third Premiership win in a row with victory over Gloucester at The Stoop.
Danny Care and Dino Lamb put Harlequins 14-0 forward inside quarter-hour, earlier than Ben Morgan and Santiago Soccino closed the hole to 2 factors.
However Care doubled his tally on the counter earlier than the break and it proved to be the final rating of the match, with the second half ending in a stalemate.
Harlequins transfer as much as third within the desk whereas Gloucester drop to sixth.
Gloucester, who’ve solely gained as soon as at Twickenham Stoop within the league since 2009, have now misplaced their final three Premiership matches.
The guests had been struggling to get a foothold within the recreation when Care broke the impasse after seven minutes of strain from Quins, touching down from a maul. Because the penalty depend piled up, Lamb adopted, lunging over from a metre out.
When Gloucester lastly broke contained in the Quins 22 they repeatedly selected to kick to the nook moderately than the posts and had been lastly rewarded on the third time of asking when Morgan scored following a set piece. Debutant fly-half Santiago Carreras added the conversion.
Momentum started to swing as winger Jake Morris got here inside inches of the road just for Nick David to make a try-saving sort out, earlier than Soccino crashed over from a maul to convey Gloucester inside touching distance.
But towards the run of play, Quins confirmed their attacking class, slickly passing up the pitch by way of Alex Dombrandt and Caden Murley from which Care crossed for the second time, pushing the result in 9 factors on the break.
Gloucester stifled Harlequins for lengthy durations of the second half, however in assault they appeared in need of concepts and couldn’t capitalise when it mattered. Morris got here closest, snatching an interception inside his personal 22 earlier than darting down the pitch, solely to be tackled once more by David.
Louis Rees-Zammit equally stopped Murley in his tracks to disclaim the hosts a try-scoring bonus level late on, though maybe worryingly for Gloucester the Wales winger needed to be helped off the pitch following an damage simply earlier than full-time, as they completed the sport with 14 gamers.
Gloucester head coach George Skivington informed BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“We have got to start out not disrespecting the primary 10 minutes of a Premiership recreation.
“We had a great deal of strain, we bought sucked right into a chaos of a great deal of off-loads and the stuff that Quins do rather well, and we butchered numerous alternatives that first 10 minutes.
“All the time we are going to combat – and the boys do – however we have started working out why we give individuals the lead and attempt to combat our means again in.”
Harlequins: David, Murley, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Bassett, Allan, Care; Marler, Walker, Louw, Lamb, Herbst, Kenningham, Evans, Dombrandt.
Replacements: Head, Baxter, Kerrod, Hammond, White, Gjaltema, Edwards, Northmore.
Gloucester: Evans, Rees-Zammit, Harris, Twelvetrees, Morris, Carreras, Chapman; Rapava-Ruskin, Socino, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow, Morgan.
Replacements: Singleton, Elrington, Knight, Jordan, Polledri, Varney, Barton, Reeves.
Referee: Wayne Barnes
