Harlequins squeak past Sharks
Sale's streak of winning just one away league game since last November continued but a valiant performance saw them deservedly leave London with a losing bonus point. The Sharks dominated up front in the first half but captain Dan Braid's try following Danny Cipriani's up-and-under was their only score in a 7-3 half-time lead.
Quins looked a different side after the break as Visser's well-taken score, combined with the boot of Nick Evans, helped them into the lead despite Sam James' try. Sale put considerable late pressure on the hosts but when Cipriani's drop-goal attempt flew wide, Quins had done just enough for the win
With returning England captain Chris Robshaw lining up at blindside flank for Harlequins, as opposed to his normal No.7 role, the game began scrappily. It was Sale that took the lead in the 18th minute as Cipriani put up a menacing high ball that Visser spilt. Braid pounced on the wing's error to bundle himself over from five metres out.
Cipriani made no mistake with the extras and the flyhalf had the chance to extend his team's lead from a penalty just inside Quins' half but slipped on contact and his effort came up short. It took the hosts 37 minutes to get into Sale's 22, when Evans's touch finder was misjudged by Nev Edwards and Peter Stringer – both making their first starts for the visitors.
From the resulting catch-and-drive, the home side were rewarded with a penalty, which Evans stroked over to make the score 7-3, although the New Zealander missed the chance to reduce the deficit on the stroke of half-time as another penalty attempt flew just wide.
Quins came out firing after the break and they reduced the arrears to one point when Evans made no mistake with a straight forward penalty and the hosts took the lead for the first time five minutes later. After a number of phases, Evans saw Visser in acres of space out wide and the wing spectacularly gathered his flyhalf's cross-field kick to dot down in the corner.
Evans nailed the conversion before extending their advantage in the 54th minute – capitalising on another scrum penalty to put his team nine points ahead. However the away side bounced back 11 minutes later after an extended spell of pressure, when James muscled his way over the line from a clever Cipriani switch.
Cipriani's conversion put his team just two points behind but the England flyhalf missed a penalty eight minutes from the end before his drop goal attempt flew wide of the left post in time added on as Quins survived.
Scorers:
For Harlequins:
Try: Visser
Con: Evans
Pens: Evans 3
For Sale Sharks:
Tries: Braid, James
Cons: Cipriani 2
Teams:
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 George Lowe, 12 Matt Hopper, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care (captain), 8 Nick Easter, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Chris Robshaw, 5 Sam Twomey, 4 Charlie Matthews, 3 Will Collier, 2 Dave Ward, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Jack Clifford, 20 James Chisholm, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Ben Botica, 23 Ollie Lindsay-Hague.
Sale Sharks: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Tom Arscott, 13 Sam James, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Nev Edwards, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Josh Beaumont, 7 TJ Ioane, 6 Dan Braid (captain), 5 Bryn Evans, 4 Jonathan Mills, 3 Vadim Cobilas, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Ross Harrison.
Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 James Flynn, 18 Brian Mujati, 19 Andrei Ostrikov, 20 Magnus Lund, 21 James Mitchell, 22 Nick Macleod, 23 Johnny Leota.
@premrugby
