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Jarrod Evans seals late Harlequins against Bristol Bears

By PA
Jarrod Evans of Harlequins kicks a conversion during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Bristol Bears and Harlequins at Ashton Gate on October 28, 2023 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images)

Jarrod Evans kicked a 79th-minute penalty from 45 metres to give Harlequins a dramatic late Gallagher Premiership victory over Bristol at a rain-sodden Ashton Gate.

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A strong second-half performance from Bristol’s pack had overturned an early 13-0 deficit heading into the closing stages.

However, when Quins captain Alex Dombrant was tackled high by Jake Heenan, the Bristol replacement was shown a yellow card and Evans held his nerve to secure the win.

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England post-match presser – third-place play-off

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      England post-match presser – third-place play-off

      Virimi Vakatawa and Harry Thacker scored Bristol’s tries, with Callum Sheedy adding three penalties and a conversion.

      George Hammond scored two tries for Harlequins, with Evans kicking three penalties and two conversions.

      Quins had taken an early lead with a penalty from Evans and it was the visitors who looked the more threatening in the opening period.

      Neat off-loads from Evans had Dombrandt and Lennox Anyanwu running into space, but the next score still came via another penalty from Evans.

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      Evans had another opportunity to kick a penalty, but his side opted for an attacking line-out. It proved the correct call by paying immediate dividends as Hammond forced his way over in the 20th minute.

      Evans converted and the visitors held a deserved 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.

      Bears had not fired a decent shot during that period, but they won two penalties in quick succession, the second of which Sheedy kicked to bring them on the scoreboard.

      Quins suffered a big blow when flanker Will Evans was shown a yellow card for a deliberate off-side, and Sheedy made no mistake with the resulting penalty.

      Sheedy was then instrumental in creating Bristol’s first try. From a scrum near half-way, his well-timed pass sent Benhard Janse Van Rensburg through a huge gap in the Quins defence before Vakatawa was provided with an easy run-in.

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      Sheedy, though, missed the conversion which saw Bristol trailed 13-11 at the interval.

      Will Evans returned from the sin-bin in time to see Quins turn down a point-blank penalty, but once again the decision proved sound with Hammond crashing over for his second try in the 44th minute.

      Bristol’s response was swift down to the alertness of hooker Thacker. In the opposition 22, Harry Randall fired out a difficult pass, but Thacker kicked the ball forward before beating three defenders to the touchdown.

      In the greasy conditions, a couple of dropped balls from Quins’ full-back Nick David put pressure on his side. When the visitors conceded a scrum penalty, Sheedy stepped up to put Bristol in front for the first time just after the hour mark.

      Bristol had dominated the final quarter, but Quins refused to give up and broke out of defence to win the crucial penalty.

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      N
      NH 1 hour ago
      'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

      Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

      17 Go to comments
      J
      JW 1 hour ago
      Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

      Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


      Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


      No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


      So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


      The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

      68 Go to comments
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