O’Shea ‘ecstatic’ as Quins make play-offs
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea was ‘ecstatic’ after watching his side clinch a place in the Premiership play-offs with a dogged 19-16 victory over Bath.
In the winner-takes-all encounter at the Twickenham Stoop, Mike Brown’s first-half try for Quins was cancelled out by George Ford.
The reliable boot of Nick Evans kicked four penalties and that proved enough to lift the home side into the top four at Bath’s expense.
Quins will now travel to Premiership front-runners and Heineken Cup finalists Saracens in the semi-finals next weekend.
O’Shea described the victory as ‘fraught’ and his side certainly had to show character to emerge on top in a nail-biting clash.
It took 17 minutes for the deadlock to be broken as Danny Care released Brown to score but Ford’s fine run through the Quins defence seven minutes later tied things up.
Nick Easter, who equalled the club’s appearance record in his 232nd game, went over but the TMO overturned the try for a forward pass.
Evans kicked Quins into a 10-7 half-time lead which they maintained going into the closing stages.
Bath were unable to exert any serious pressure in Quins territory and Ford’s wayward drop goal attempt was the last action of the match.
O’Shea said: “I’m ecstatic for the guys. We can play a lot better than that but we’re in a semi-final.
“It’s a one-off and if we can do this over the next three weeks, it’ll be the greatest achievement this club has ever had.
“We cannot wait to get out and play Saracens next week. They’re the best team in the country, they’re in the Heineken Cup final but it’s an exciting challenge.
“Everyone had written us off five weeks ago when we played Saracens at Wembley but we’ve got ourselves in with a chance.”
Quins skipper Chris Robshaw, named man of the match, added: “It’s been a tough year for us but in the last couple of weeks we’ve got that spark again.
“We haven’t particularly had a good run against them [Saracens] in previous years but it’s knockout rugby and that’s what we’re about at Harlequins.”
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