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Ulster thump Harlequins to book Challenge Cup quarter-final with Northampton

By PA
PA

Ulster will play Northampton in the quarter-finals of the European Rugby Challenge Cup next weekend after a thumping 57-21 victory over Harlequins at The Stoop.

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The Irish provincial side ran in four tries in the first half and four in the second as they overwhelmed a young and inexperienced Quins side.

The first try came inside the opening 10 minutes as a break from Robert Baloucoune ended with Stuart McCloskey powering over.

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Harlequins v <a href=Ulster Rugby – Heineken Challenge Cup – Twickenham Stoop” />

It was converted by John Cooney, who added a penalty before Ulster crossed for two more tries in quick succession. Both came from driving mauls as Quins’ defence crumbled, Rob Herring and Sean Reidy touching down.

Cooney converted both to extend the lead to 24-0 with less than half an hour gone.

Tom Lawday got the hosts on the board with a try after Jordi Murphy had been sent to the sin bin but Ulster grabbed their fourth soon after, Michael Lowry pouncing on a poor clearance.

Harlequins v Ulster Rugby - Heineken Challenge Cup - Twickenham Stoop

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It was 29-7 at the break, and the lead was extended shortly before the hour mark as a driving maul again paid dividends, Herring scoring his second try and Cooney converting.

Next to cross the line was Billy Burns from an interception and, after Jack Kenningham had scored a second try for Quins, Alby Mathewson and Cooney’s conversion brought up Ulster’s half-century.

The TMO took a look at Ulster’s eighth try but decided an inside pass came off the hands of a Harlequins players as Reidy went over for his second.

It was a miserable night for the hosts but they at least had the final say, Jordan Els grabbing his first try for the club.

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f
fl 46 minutes ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

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