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Marcus Smith kicks Harlequins to tense victory over Bath

Mike Brown is surrounded by Anthony Watson, Semesa Rokoduguni and Jonathan Joseph at Twickenham Stoop (Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

Marcus Smith’s accuracy from the kicking tee proved the difference as Harlequins beat Bath 15-9 in a tense Heineken Champions Cup encounter.

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Four penalties from Smith put Harlequins 12-0 up after 50 minutes in an all-Gallagher Premiership clash at the Stoop. Freddie Burns knocked over two kicks of his own to halve the deficit as Bath threatened a comeback before a James Lang penalty made it 15-6.

Elia Elia was sent to the sin bin late on and Burns reduced the deficit to six, but it was not enough as Harlequins held on for a deserved win.

Both sides went into the match having lost their opening games and the hosts asserted their control within the first two minutes, winning a penalty from the scrum as Smith knocked over from 40 metres.

Two more kicks from Smith followed soon after as he punished Bath’s early ill-discipline to put his side 9-0 up after 15 minutes.

(Continue reading below…)

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Harlequins threatened the game’s first try after great hands from Smith and Matt Symons allowed Elia to bundle his way to the five-metre line, but the hosts fumbled the ball to waste the opportunity.

They looked comfortable with their lead though, a big hit from Semesa Rokoduguni on Mike Brown about as positive as the half got for Bath as they failed to gain any sort of possession in Harlequins territory.

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Harlequins started the half quickly again and went close to scoring through Smith and then Danny Care, who looked certain to dot down as he dived for the line but was stopped just short.

The hosts had the penalty advantage though and opted for the scrum five metres out, before deciding to take the points two minutes later from another penalty as Smith made it 12-0 after 50 minutes. Bath got themselves on the scoreboard soon after as Burns converted his first kick of the match, and the three points shifted the momentum of the match.

The visitors enjoyed their first sustained spell in the Harlequins 22, and Bath won another penalty right in front of the posts after good work from the forwards to give Burns the simplest of kicks as the lead was cut to six.

It was a tense finale but the hosts’ nerves were calmed when Bath went off their feet at the breakdown and Lang stepped up to land a penalty from near the halfway line.

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Elia was sent to the sin bin with five minutes to go for a high tackle and Burns knocked over a penalty in front of the posts to make it 15-9 but Harlequins did enough to secure a tight victory.

– Press Association 

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J
JW 2 hours ago
Razor has an about turn on All Blacks eligibility rules

Yep, another problem!


I think he would have, in the instance I mentioned, which wasn’t changing anything other than correctly applying todays eligibility quidelines. Which is an arbitrary construct, as the deal likely would have played out completely differently, but I just ‘allowed’ him to have 1 year sabbatically for his ‘loyalty’, rather than having some arbitrary number like 70 caps required.


So if Richie had a 3 year deal, and the first year he was allowed to use him still, I don’t think he’d really not transition to Dmac being his main 10, as he’s obviously the only one he can use for the following two years, therefore likely his only real option for the WC (very hard for Richie to overtake him in such a short time). Richie would purely be a security net in a situation like I proposition where there are only small changes to the eligibility.


The system is not working well enough though, as we don’t have the Rugby Championship or World Cup trophies, do we? Well on that last question, that’s all I’m really saying but I would not believe a word this author says, so it’s entirely a ‘what if’ discussion, but if the author is right and now they are actually going to be more flexible, I think that’s great yeah. Ultimately thought I think those two players were an anomaly signing their contracts and futures up so far ahead, especially of when they were performing. Both jumped at the opportunity of good contracts when their All Black prospects weren’t looking that bright.

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