Green seizes day for dazzling Quins

HARLEQUINS reached their first Champions Cup semi-final after shattering perceptions of a free-running side with a soft underbelly by taking on a team that had twice overpowered Saracens at forward and destroying their scrum. 

- PAUL REES

Quins won five penalties and a free-kick at the set-piece. They turned two into tries and a third, with less than a minute to go, allowed them to run down the clock as replacement Jarrod Evans went for goal. He missed from wide on the left, but it was all about making sure the ball went dead.

The home players were as stunned as their supporters. The previous week they had pulverised Saracens for the second time this year three weeks after the Premiership champions had put 52 points on Quins to make it 90 in the season against their London rivals.

It was not so much that there was complacency in the Top 14 side’s ranks as a belief that the danger they faced lay out wide. The first eight minutes showed what they were really up against as the excellent Will Porter’s try was followed up with a penalty try when Mateo Garcia denied Tyrone Green a run-in by swatting away Marcus Smith’s pass with his left hand.