Win in vain for Stade

Despite earning a bonus-point 31-10 victory against Harlequins at The Twickenham Stoop, Stade Francais have been knocked out of this season's Heineken Cup.

The star-studded outfit scored four tries with Dimitri Szarzewski, Julien Arias, David Skrela and Ignacio Corleto all touching down.

However, for all Stade's flair and the result it brought, Cardiff's win at Bristol instead sees the Magners League outfit topping Pool Three.

Without a win in this season's competition and long out of the running, Harlequins nevertheless started the match as though it was they who had it all to play for and went ahead after two minutes thanks to an Adrian Jarvis penalty.

But Stade began to hit their collective stride soon enough and, following a turnover in midfield inspired by Pascal Pape, a last-ditch tackle from Mike Brown was needed to stop winger Arias going over after 11 minutes.

The French side were making mistakes but also increasingly asserting themselves in terms of both possession and territory and made it pay on 24 minutes when Szarzewski crashed over from close range, the hooker also converting.

Flowing

A Skrela penalty extended their lead to seven points just past the half hour with Stade's second try coming soon after - the fly-half twice involved in a flowing move which ended with winger Arias appearing from nowhere on the end of an overlap to touch down.

Skrela again found the target, with the remainder of normal time in the first half seeing Harlequins pressure Stade's line - their second wave ending four minutes into stoppage time with a conceded penalty in front of the posts.

The visitors led 17-3 at half time and Harlequins looked to be right back in it when Tom Guest crossed two minutes into the second half; however, the try was disallowed when the video referee decided that the number eight had failed to ground the ball.

Only four minutes later Guest found himself in a similar predicament: having dived for the line following a five-metre scrum, the officials this time decided that he had come up short.

Stade should have scored their third after 50 minutes when Ignacio Corleto made a break for the right-hand corner. He fed Arias and, sensing his second score of the afternoon, the winger went for the line.

Timely

But, thanks to some timely Harlequins tackling - and with Stephane Glas appearing unmarked - his momentum was not quite enough to take him over.

With the hour coming and going without any change to the scoreline, Quins gained an advantage following the sin-binning of Rodrigo Roncero inside Stade's 22.

However, after Chris Hala'Ufia went for the line - the flanker shortly to be replaced by Will Skinner after appearing to be injured in the move - an infringement on the ground saw a penalty going the other way.

Good defence from Harlequins held off replacement Mauro Bergamasco after 68 minutes but quick hands from the French side right-to-left then saw Skrela crossing casually by the posts, the fly-half also converting.

The bonus point came when a delayed offload from Sergio Parisse allowed Corleto to sprint through unopposed five minutes later, with Skrela converting - but the result in Bristol by now rendered the match irrelevant.

Still, there was time for Harlequins to score a deserved try in injury time, with Simon Keogh scrambling over in the right-hand corner and Jarvis converting..