No dream finish for Robshaw as Wasps beat Harlequins

Wasps spoiled Chris Robshaw’s last home appearance in a Harlequins shirt as the visitors fought back to beat 14-man Quins at the Stoop on Monday evening.

  Harlequins   23    Wasps Rugby  32

  Gallagher Premiership Round 21 Monday 28^th September 2020

   Peter Moore at The Stoop

The home side were looking comfortable when leading by 20-8 before Elia Elia was shown a red card. Three tries late on from Wasps completed the comeback to move them up to second in the table.

The visitors drew first blood in the twelfth minute when a dominate scrum saw Tom Willis power over the line.

Harlequins hit back quickly, and it was a game changer who made an instant impact when Alex Dombrandt – coming on for James Chisholm – had barely been on the pitch for a minute dotted down in the corner.

The back rower spotted a gap in the middle and burst through to score under the posts. Marcus Smith added the extras to give Quins the lead for the first time in the game.

Wasps responded with a penalty from Jimmy Gopperth, only for Harlequins to win a penalty on the stroke of half-time which Smith knocked over to give the home side a 15-8 lead at the break.

Within two minutes of the restart Quins had stretched their advantage to 12 points following some magic from Smith. The fly-half produced a moment of brilliance with a cheeky chip over the top to run in at the corner.

Harlequins were well on top at that point, when Wasps were given a lifeline when Quins Elia was shown a red card for a tip tackle on Dan Robson with Harlequins having to play the last 26 minutes with only 14 men.

Immediately the one-man advantage for the rest of the game turned the match around. Gabriel Oghre powered over from close range before Smith kicked a penalty for Quins.

The visitors though they had scored another try only for the TMO to deny this due to a knock on. However, it wasn’t long before Wasps got their noses in front with two tries in the space of a couple of minutes.

Thomas Young went over in the corner and when Mike Brown’s kick was charged down by Willis to cross for the bonus point try, Wasps looked to be heading for a crucial win.

That was confirmed with the last kick of the game when Gopperth slotted over a penalty to give the visitors a vital bonus point win in their quest to finish in the top four.