'Jeepers, it's frustrating, especially the first half for us'

Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson was delighted with his side’s 26-24 victory over local rivals London Irish, but was also left with shredded nerves after the final whistle. The London derby at the Twickenham Stoop twisted on multiple occasions, with the Exiles nudging ahead again after seeing a 14-0 half-time lead slip away during the second half.

Add red cards for Irish’s Ben Donnell and Quins’ Nick David and there were already plenty of talking points before replacement hooker George Head snatched victory for the hosts with the clock almost five minutes into the red. “It’s great to watch as a fan, but as a coach, jeepers, it’s frustrating, especially the first half for us,” said Harlequins boss Matson.

“But ultimately it’s such a tight competition, this was never going to be an easy fixture, and to scrape away with a win in the 84th or 85th minute is probably the most important thing. Disappointingly, their second-half try looked really soft for us and we just made a couple of really poor defensive glitches and they are sharp.

“One of the things I admire about them is that they are good in the wider channels, but we stayed in the fight and we talk about the composure at the end when you are getting reds and yellows and people are playing in different positions. It’s really tough so to be composed right at the end and get the win, there will be a few pats on the back.”

London Irish seized the initiative and led 21-7 early in the second half through tries by So’otala Fa’aso’o, Donnell and Ollie Hassell-Collins, with Tommy Allan replying for Harlequins. Donnell had been sent off before Alex Dombrandt and Allan levelled the match, with David’s red coming before Paddy Jackson’s penalty put the Exiles ahead again, only for Head to deny them at the death.

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney said: “When you lose in the last play of the game it is disappointing, but what you have to do as professionals is let the emotions settle and deal with it. We know there are lots of things we can do better, but you can’t be that disappointed if you are that close.

“We were well out of the blocks but there are parts we can do better. It is very disappointing and there were lots of little bits in the last couple of minutes where the emotions were yo-yoing, so we have to take a look at what we can do better. When the emotion settles you come off and everyone is talking about the last couple of plays of the game, but what you have to do is look at the whole.”

On the sendings-off, Kidney added: “They were for similar incidents, so there was a consistency.”