LV= Cup: Ben Botica stars as Harlequins beat London Welsh
Harlequins maintained their perfect record in the LV= Cup following a 23-6 success over winless London Welsh.
Last Updated: 26/01/13 5:09pm
The Aviva Premiership champions were missing a number of regulars and responded to falling behind to Alex Davies' penalty with a try from Mark Lambert.
Youngster Ben Botica, son of Wigan rugby league legend Frano, converted and continued to do the damage with the boot with a penalty in the 20th minute.
Davies make it 10-6 to Welsh five minutes later, but that was as good as it got for the visitors with two more penalties from Botica and a late converted try by Dave Ward completing the victory.
The Quins now face Ospreys at Bridgend next Sunday in their final group fixture when a draw would be sufficient to see them through to the semi-finals.
For Welsh it was their third consecutive defeat in the tournament, which leaves them bottom of Pool Four without a single point.
The game was very poor despite both teams trying to run the ball at every opportunity. At times it resembled a sevens match as both were guilty of regularly turning over possession. There were far too many handling errors as neither side could bring any continuity to their play.
The home side dominated the set scrum as the Welsh retreated at every engagement but in the loose the visitors were the masters and their hard-working pack were very unlucky to come away with no reward.
Harlequins had impressive performers in forwards Tom Guest and Luke Wallace and behind the scrum had far more pace than their opposite numbers but they failed to capitalise on their advantage.
