Quins banish Exiles at HQ

London Irish's crisis deepened as they crashed to their eighth straight defeat with a 28-18 loss to Harlequins at Twickenham on Monday.

Both sides appeared a little short on confidence for much of the match before it finally burst into life approaching the final quarter.

The first half descended into little more than a penalty trade-off as cynical play by the London Irish pack saw them repeatedly kill the ball at the breakdown.

The Exiles conceded 10 penalties to Quins' four during 40 first half minutes that stifled any promise the game showed of finding a spark.

They were much improved in the second half but Quins seemed to lose their own composure - conceding eight penalties to Irish's three - and looked in danger of letting Irish in until outside centre George Lowe sealed the win with a try 12 minutes from time.

Harlequins opened the scoring after five minutes when Nick Evans struck a simple penalty from under the sticks following some good pressure in the Exiles' 22.

Quins went perilously close minutes later when Tom Williams intercepted deep inside his own territory and set off on a magnificent break up the left touchline.

Heroic

The winger looked set to score a sensational try only to be brought down and bundled into touch yards short, thanks to a heroic tackle by fly-half Chris Malone.

Malone made it three apiece on 11 minutes with a well struck penalty but his efforts were wiped out almost immediately, by another easy three-pointer from Evans after Irish were caught off their feet.

Malone brought things level again on 17 minutes when Quins were pinged for hands in at the ruck but again immediately threw the points away by giving away another needless penalty.

This time it was Thorpe, who blatantly blocked the chasing Ugo Monye straight from the restart.

Evans duly booted the points to put his side back in front but he was unable to stretch the lead when he missed a testing effort from 48 metres.

Irish however, continued to infringe, and on 25 minutes they were penalised for a sixth time - this time for coming in from the side.

Evans slotted between the sticks to make it 12-6 but Malone kept his side in touch four minutes later with a penalty of his own.

Pressure

Five minutes before the break Evans took Quins to 15-9 with a smart 27 metre penalty after Mapasua was caught offside out on the right.

With a degree of tedious predictability, Irish's reply came straight from the restart, Malone again keeping his side in touch with the boot.

But, with the clock reading 80 minutes, the referee finally lost patience with Irish's persistent ball-killing tactics and lock Bob Casey found himself banished to the sin-bin for not rolling away.

Evans slotted the penalty to restore the gap and take Harlequins into the break with an 18-12 lead.

Casey's sin-binning saw Harlequins enjoy the first ten minutes of the second half with a man advantage on their opponents.

But it was Irish who notched up the first points when Malone struck a solid penalty to make it 18-15 five minutes in.

Evans again restored the advantage eight minutes later, sending his penalty from the 22 straight down the middle after 6ft 8in lock Nick Kennedy was penalised for a high tackle on the diminutive Danny Care.

Malone missed a chance to close the gap but as Irish built up the pressure on their opponents the game finally threatened to burst into life.

Deadlock

The Exiles attacked deep into enemy territory and Quins soon found themselves defending frantically on their line as Irish repeatedly tried to bludgeon their way over.

And when Care was found guilty of killing the ball, Malone slotted the penalty to make it 21-18 as the England scrum-half trudged off to the bin.

It was Quins who finally broke the deadlock when on 68 minutes inside centre Jordan Turner-Hall pierced the Exiles' defence with a perfectly weighted chip through.

Lowe darted through to collect the loose ball and race in to the line for the try, while Evans booted the extras to make it 28-18 and help Quins secure that all important 10 point buffer.

Irish began to pile on the pressure as the clock ticked down as they went in search of the try and three times they turned down penalty kicks in favour of the lineout just yards short of the line.

But, despite mounting sustained attacks they simply could not break through a stalwart rearguard and when Quins got the turnover it was all over for the Exiles.