Harlequins 27 London Irish 28:IF YOU like your rugby fast and furious, with a knife-edge finish, then The Stoop was the place to be on Saturday.
However, when it came to guile, particularly in deployment of the bench, then London Irish deserved to squeeze past Harlequins in this six-try duel, Peter Hewat's 65th-minute interception concluding a remarkable turnaround after they had trailed 20-3 in the first half.
Harlequins' early blitz unleashed by the speed of Danny Care, David Strettle and Tom Guest left the visitors reeling and, with Chris Malone kicking everything, the Irish looked buried.
Toby Booth, in his first season in charge at Irish after replacing Brian Smith, paid tribute to his match captain, Seilala Mapusua, and club captain, Bob Casey, who came on just after half-time, as Irish scored 25 unanswered points in 14 minutes. He singled out two more second-half replacements, scrumhalf Paul Hodgson and hooker Danie Coetzee, for special mention, stressing the importance he places on the bench: "We go into a game with a planned substitution scheme because we believe it is a 22-man game."
The philosophy paid dividends here. With fresh legs up front and Hodgson's crisp service giving their reshaped side momentum, Mapusua started to make headway, and Delon Armitage, who had given Irish a 20-8 lifeline with a try on the stroke of half-time, pressed home the advantage. Hewat, who had just kicked a penalty, added the conversion to pare down the Harlequins lead to 20-18 before then converting his interception try and landing a further penalty to give the Irish a 28-20 lead seven minutes from time.
Harlequins, having got within a point after Danny Care burrowed over and Waisea Luveniyali converted, launched a desperate multi-phase attack. It failed.
HARLEQUINS:Brown; Monye (Williams 75), Tiesi, Turner-Hall, Strettle; Malone (Luveniyali 73), D Care; Jones, Botha (Fuga 67), M Ross (Lambert 73), Kohn (Robson 67), Evans, Easter (Robshaw 49), Guest, Skinner (capt).
LONDON IRISH:Hewat; Ojo, D Armitage, Mapusua (capt), Tagicakibau; Hickey (Seveali'i 45), Richards (Hodgson 51); Corbisiero, Paice (Coetzee 57), Rautenbach (Lea'aetoa 57), Kennedy, Johnson (Casey 45), Thorpe, Hala'ufia, S Armitage (Fisher 76).
Referee:D Richards (RFU).
Guardian Service
