Big Upset at The Stoop

The Harlequins revelled in their hard-fought, deserved victory over third-placed Sale Sharks on Friday night at The Stoop.

Sale lacked discipline and energy in the forwards, allowing Marcus Smith to convert their regular infringements into points with the boot.

Although the Sale pack exhibited ample size and strength through its significant South African flavour, the ‘Quins forwards put them through their paces, fiercely denying them any aspirations of ascendency through sheer grit and determination from the ever-vocal Joe Marler and co.

The teams jogged off to the shed for half-time with the scoreboard reading 9-0 in ‘Quins’ favour. From a spectator’s perspective, there was a latent feeling that Sale were merely shaking the cobwebs off and would rise to dominance in the second stanza.

Said feeling was vindicated when Sale struck early in the first half after a well-worked moved saw Byron McGuigan dive over in the corner.  The tide did not change, however, as the ‘Quins pack only stiffened their resolve while Marcus Smith’s wonderful tactical kicking kept Sale pinned back their own half, negating any rhythm they attempted to cultivate on attack.

‘Quins scored their first and only try of the match when Scott Baldwin dotted down from the depths of an effective rolling maul to cement the final score of 16-10.

The result is a major turn up for 'Quins who crashed to a massive 48-10 defeat the last time the two teams met, making this victory taste that much sweeter.