Quins sign off in style

Dragons' fightback to no avail

Last updated: 7th September 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Quins sign off in style

Randall: Three tries

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Chad Randall scored a hat-trick of tries as Quins defied a late comeback by the Dragons to round off the season in style.

With Rob Purham pulling the strings, Quins stormed into a 22-8 lead at half-time with the loose forward racking up 14 points including a sensational try.

But despite some late pressure from the French-based outfit, with two tries from Dimitri Pelo, the hosts held on to give the departing Scott Hill, Henry Paul and Julien Rinaldi a winning send-off.

Catalans took an early lead when Adam Mogg kicked an 11th-minute penalty, and he increased the advantage when converting his own try following a misunderstanding in the Quins defence.

But Harlequins replied eight minutes later when Will Sharp sprinted home from the halfway line with Purdham adding the extras.

Quins were dominating the play and it finally paid off 10 minutes later when Randall scored his first try from close range after good build-up work from Danny Orr and Gareth Haggerty.

Randall added his second five minutes before the interval after linking up with Purdham on the Dragons' right, and Purdham crowned a fantastic first-half effort when he dived over after Clint Greenshields fumbled a speculative grubber kick.

Quins stretched the lead 10 minutes into the second half with Rinaldi dashing over from dummy half, but Dragons would not lie down and swiftly replied when Casey McGuire caught their defence off guard after an offload from Dane Carlaw.

The visitors crossed again in the 66th minute when Pelo dived in at the righthand corner following John Wilson's lofted pass, and he doubled his personal tally seven minutes later to rattle their opponents.

But, fittingly, Randall put an end to Catalan hopes as he successfully dummied to go over from close range - Paul getting in on the action by adding the extras.