Quins claim bonus point win

Harlequins drew closer to a home quarter-final with a 29-24 bonus point victory over Scarlets in their Heineken Cup clash on Saturday.

Quins had already qualified for the knockout stages after opening up an unassailable lead in Pool Four.

The Welsh region, who needed a win and a bonus point to keep their Cup hopes alive, crashed out of the competition despite a valiant second-half fightback.

The Londoners ran in four tries, with Chris Robshaw, George Robson, James Percival and Tom Williams all crossing for the hosts and Nick Evans striking six from seven attempts at goal.

Scarlets waited for almost an hour before coming to life, Morgan Stoddart, Matthew Rees and Gavin Evans scoring in the second half for the visitors.

Dominating

Quins exploded out of the blocks, completely dominating possession from the whistle and barely allowing their opponents a look-in.

But it was the visitors who put first points on the board, Stephen Jones stepping up to slot an easy penalty in front of the posts on 11 minutes and make it 3-0.

Moments later and Quins had the opportunity to reply with a kickable penalty of their own. But, looking for the try, they opted instead to kick for touch, a decision that came to nothing.

Approaching the two minute mark however, the hosts made no mistake when Scarlets were penalised within striking distance, Nick Evans making it 3-3.

Two minutes later and Quins had the try they had been looking for courtesy of Robshaw, who received the ball out wide thanks to some great work by the pack.

Robshaw offloaded to Williams who set off on a jinking run through the Scarlets' defence before returning the ball to the flanker who crashed over in the corner.

Evans missed a difficult conversion from out wide to leave the score on 8-3.

Intelligence

Immediately after the restart and Quins nearly took their second, tearing apart the visitors' defence with some smart passing from the threequarters before the move was brought to a halt inches short of the line.

But the Stoop crowd did not have to wait for long before they were on their feet again when on 28 minutes Robson claimed the Londoners' second.

Attacking close to the visitors' line, Quins showed intelligence and patience to draw the Scarlets defence in and give Robson an easy run in.

Evans was on target second time round to add the extras and open up his side's lead to 15-3, which they held until half-time.

Harlequins continued to attack from the restart and it was only a matter of time before the third try came.

A powerful drive for the line by Nick Easter after collecting the ball from the base of the scum, was completed by fellow forward Percival 12 minutes into the second half.

Evans made it three from four with the help of a post, slotting a 34 metre kick from wide on the right.

Four minutes later and Scarlets woke up, scoring twice in the space of three minutes to bring themselves right back into contention.

The first came courtesy of Stoddart after a sublime last minute pass by Regan King found Jon Davies in space.

Davies offloaded to Stoddart, who blasted across the line with an electrifying burst of speed while Jones added the extras.

The visiting supporters had barely finished celebrating before Scarlets had their second, Rees selling a sublime dummy to pass two defenders and crash over.

Breathing space

Jones was on target again to close the gap down to just five points at 22-17 and bring his team to within shouting distance of their hosts.

But Harlequins are not to be taken lightly and the London side answered within five minutes, spreading the ball wide for Williams to cross in the corner.

Evans added two more to take the score to 29-17 and put some breathing space between them and their opponents.

Scarlets however fought to the bitter end and their refusal to lie down paid off in the dying seconds when Gavin Evans crossed for a consolation try.

Jones, with the last kick of the game, left the teams divided by just five points at the final whistle.