Late Quins fightback not enough to grab victory over Sharks

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Harlequins never recovered after conceding two tries in the opening 15 minutes at the hands of Sale Sharks at the Twickenham Stoop on Tuesday. Despite a late fightback from the hosts, Sharks held on for the win, but like their hosts, failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Premiership Rugby Cup.

In a scrappy opening ten minutes with both sides making handling errors and giving away cheap penalties, it was the visitors who drew first blood when young winger Jack Metcalf offloaded under pressure into the hands of Will Cliff to walk in unopposed. Kieran Wilkinson added the extras to give Sale an early lead.

Three minutes later they had added their second try of the night when Wilkinson’s chip and chase was successful for him to dot down to score. The conversion was missed, but the visitors had already built up a 12-0 lead.

Despite the earlier setback, Quins hit back after some wonderful handling from the backs and with a fantastic burst of speed Cassius Cleaves scored in the corner on his debut for the club, to reduce the deficit to seven points.

Not to be deterred, Sale’s response was instant after winning a line out and maul they shipped the ball out wide for Simon Hammersley to run in.

Sharks had to play out the later stages of the first half  with 13 men when Wilkinson and Joe Carpenter were sent to the bin. Quins took advantage of the one man advantage when Viliami Taulani powered over from close range.

In the course of a manic two minutes Harlequins had drawn level after the ball was sent out wide to the 19-year-old winger Cleaves who showed everybody a clean pair of heels to score his second try of the evening.

However, within sixty seconds a poor pass from the hosts was intercepted by Jack Metcalf to run in and score under the posts to give the visitors the lead at the break 24-17.

Within two minutes of the restart, Quins were back on level terms. Ross Chisholm was fed a lovely inside ball from Hayden Hyde with the fly-half scoring under the sticks. The extras were added to make the score 24-24.

The two man advantage had hit Sharks badly after conceding 12 points in the ten minute period.

With both men returning back into the fray, Sale re-took the lead when Carpenter crossed with his first touch of the ball following his yellow card.

Harlequins lost the services of Chisholm after a serious injury which resulted in the brother of James stretchered of the field.

After a long break in play the game resumed with Sharks’ James Harper powering over from  short range to give the visitors a ten point cushion.

There was still time for some late drama when with two minutes remaining, Archie White powered over to bring Quins within five points.

Sharks received their third yellow card of the match when Harper was dispatched to the bin with a minute remaining. Despite Quins getting within 15 metres of the line, the home side knocked on under the posts with the last play of the game to give Sale their second win in the competition.

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