the times | Monday April 4 2022 53
Sport
Tries conceded this season by
Worcester Warriors, only the
second side to let in 100 in
21 yearsWords by Kit ShepardHarlequins get
Smith back to
his fizzing best
involved against Sale Sharks and
Leicester — so is clearly their talisman.
Irish started the stronger and scored
after Andre Esterhuizen had knocked
on trying to run the ball out of his 22
and the ball was flung right to Paddy
Jackson, who sauntered in for a try that
he converted.
That woke up Harlequins, who
scored four tries without reply before
half-time. First Jack Walker rumbled
over from the back of a rolling maul,
Smith converting. Then Smith found
his range. Quins, from another lineout
close to the line, sent Esterhuizen up
the middle; he was well stopped, but
when the ball was recycled to Smith he
threw an incredible, fizzing pass out
right to his house-mate Murley. The
ball floated over Ollie Hassell-Collins’s
fingertips by inches, but it was enough
to drop safely into Murley’s hands for
the score.
Irish almost scored but Hassell-
Collins dropped the ball over the line0
2Gallagher Premiership
Will Kelleher
1
London Irish
Harlequins
14
41
ing hole to score their sixth try, with
Edwards knocking over the conversion.
Bernard Janse van Rensburg did
score a consolation try for Irish, with
Jackson converting, but then Edwards
threw a Smith-esque pass to Jones for
his second and Quins’ seventh.Smith was free to create again as the Premiership champions maintained their
play-off push by swatting aside London Irish with a seven-try win at BrentfordDAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGESMarcus Smith had waited 50 days with-
out as much as an assist while fumbling
around for England in the Six Nations
— but back among home comforts the
magical fly half had two in five minutes
here.
The delightful double propelled
Harlequins to a bonus-point win away
to London Irish in the derby game, and
showed that whatever restrictions he
had in English white, Smith is still a box
of tricks in the technicolour of Quins.
There were no speculative cross-
kicks, no running about looking in vain
for friends, Smith was on script and
back to fizzing form.
The first echoed Finn Russell’s won-
derful wide lob over Jonathan Joseph in
the 2018 Calcutta Cup game, then
finding Huw Jones with a peach of a ball
— Cadan Murley the grateful recipient
of Smith’s assist here.
Then in Quins’ next attack Smith
jinked and found Jones on the left. His
last tryscoring pass had come on Febru-
ary 13 for Elliot Daly in Rome against
Italy, so it must have been comforting
for him to know he had not lost his
groove in Eddie Jones’s tactical strait-
jacket.
In the end Harlequins scored seven
tries to Irish’s two, meaning they
cemented their place in third behind
Leicester Tigers and Saracens with four
games left in the Gallagher Premier-
ship with their largest ever league win
against Irish.
When Smith plays, Quins often win.
In the seven they have lost this season
the 23-year-old fly half has missed five
while on international duty — only
and five minutes later Harlequins made
them pay. Alex Dombrandt and Joe
Marchant carried hard, and with time
and space on the left, Smith provided
for Huw Jones to score out wide.
With Nick Phipps, Irish’s scrum half,
sin-binned before the break, Walker
combined with Hugh Tizard to burst
down the blind side from a maul. The
hooker had his second.
And when Care scored after half-
time, ending another flowing Quins
move to take his 79th in the Premier-
ship, Irish’s day was done, the Smith
kick pushing the visitors out to a 29-7
lead with half an hour to go.
Quins still had time to stall, though,
and Care was shown a yellow card for a
deliberate knock-on after an hour. It
was his fourth sin-binning in four
consecutive Premiership matches.
At that point Smith went off too, with
Will Edwards his tactical replacement.
Esterhuizen lumbered through a gap-TMO (the monday overview)
Scorers: London Irish: Tries Jackson (13min),
Janse van Rensburg (74). Cons Jackson 2.
Harlequins: Tries Walker 2 (18, 39), Murley
(32), Jones 2 (36, 77), Care (45), Esterhuizen
(67). Cons Smith 2, Edwards.
London Irish T Parton (C Munga 68); L Cinti
(M Cornish 55), C Rona, B Janse van
Rensburg, O Hassell-Collins; P Jackson, N
Phipps (sin-bin 39-49, B White 59); W
Goodrick-Clarke (F Gigena 65), A Creevy, O
Hoskins, G Nott, R Simmons, M Rogerson, J
Martin Gonzalez, A Tuisue (J Cooke 71).
Harlequins H Jones; C Murley, J Marchant, A
Esterhuizen, L Northmore (L Lynagh 65); M
Smith (W Edwards 59), D Care (sin-bin 56, L
Gjaltema 78); J Marler (S Kerrod 65), J Walker,
W Collier, M Symons, H Tizard, G Hammond
(M Jurevicius 60), T Lawday, A Dombrandt.Weekend highlights
Ludlam on song
Lewis Ludlam did not show up at
Franklin’s Gardens merely to
entertain on the field. Twenty
minutes after helping Northampton
Saints hit the high notes with a 39-
22 victory against Bristol Bears, the
England flanker tackled the guitar
when he got on stage at the
supporter village for a quick set with
the singer Connor Adams.
The Saints captain is a contender
for player of the season and was
typically influential on Saturday,
dragging three defenders over for a
powerful score as Northampton
kept pace with their rivals for the
Premiership play-off places.O’Gara in touchline spat
Six days on from Will Smith slapping
Chris Rock at the Oscars, the Ireland
legend Ronan O’Gara was embroiled
in a similar spot of bother when
clashing with the Bordeaux Beglès
head coach, Christophe Urios, who
appeared to aim a slap at the former
British & Irish Lions fly half.
O’Gara’s La Rochelle jumped to
third in the Top 14 after Ihaia West’s
82nd-minute penalty earned them a
16-15 victory at second-placed
Bordeaux, but the incident took
place at the end of the first half,
when the hosts led 12-10.
After O’Gara had furiously
pumped his fists and aimed some
choice words at Urios earlier in the
half, the two head coaches squared
up to each other, with Urios looking
to have taken a swipe at O’Gara
before walking off and leaving the
former Munster captain
remonstrating with an official.
“This guy is unbearable,” Urios
said afterwards of O’Gara. “I regret
that the fourth or fifth referee did
not do his job. But I don’t care, it’s
over. I don’t care about him.”
Words by Kit ShepardHow they stand
P W D L F A B Pts
Leicester 20 17 0 3 603 385 12 80
Saracens 20 14 1 5 644 379 14 72
Harlequins 20 13 0 7 524 431 16 68
Exeter 21 12 0 9 482 418 14 62
Northamptn20 11 0 9 593 509 14 58
Sale 21 9 3 9 466 442 12 56
Gloucester 19 10 1 8 495 461 13 55
London Irish21 8 4 9 552 583 13 53
Wasps 20 10 0 10 514 510 12 52
Bristol 20 6 0 14 459 559 13 37
Newcastle 20 6 1 13 364 491 6 32
Worcester 20 5 1 14 380 688 8 30
Bath 20 4 1 15 376 596 7 27
French referee in charge
Mathieu Raynal took charge of the
London Irish v Harlequins match
yesterday — the first French referee to
officiate a Premiership game since he
himself did Irish v Northampton in
October 2012. O’Gara angered Bordeaux’s coachRobson’s drop goal v Gloucester
Halfway line22m
lineDan
RobsonABBilly
TwelvetreesGloucester defendersHalfwaalfwyyDanD
RobsonRRobsonosonABBiillyi
Twwelvetrewlvet esGloucesterdefendersA: Billy Twelvetrees kicks a try-line
drop-out long to Dan Robson
B: Robson gathers and, from just inside the
Gloucester half, hammers over a drop goal
to give Wasps a lead they would not
relinquishA Waller
NorthamptonJ Kirsten
ExeterC Lawes
NorthamptonL Schreuder
NewcastleM Malins
SaracensS Hogg
ExeterJ Cokanasiga
BathB Connon
Newcastle
R Hutchinson
Northampton
C Harris
GloucesterA Barbeary
WaspsJ Willis
WaspsH Tizard
HarlequinsJ Walker
HarlequinsP Schickerling
Exeter1 34 52691312108 711 15 14Jannes Kirsten
(Exeter)
A workmanlike
performance from
Kirsten allowed his
backs to flourish
against a lowly but
resurgent Bath. The
second-row
forward made 16
carries and 11
tackles without
being beaten as the
Chiefs moved into
the top four.Play of the week Player of the week
101
Stat of the week
Toby Flood’s final match at Twickenham ended in defeat
at Cambridge lost 21-17 to Oxford in the Varsity MatchTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Team of the week