Harlequins 19-22
London IrishVisitors secure second league win of seasonThis was London Irish’s second win of the season, but you would never have known it. To claim it at the home of their local rivals, the champions of
England, will have gratified still further. A game in which both sides tried to outdo each other on the missed-opportunity front ended in a win for the side less profligate.
Irish started among four sides level on 17 points, from which deadlock they now emerge to nestle in behind the top six in the customarily tight mid-table. Quins remain second, but their old obsession with extravagance haunted them on a bitterly cold day that could have favoured something more prosaic.
This was not quite the exhilarating affair we might have expected from last season’s kings of the comeback against this season’s, but Irish did recover from a half-time deficit, so their status on that front remains intact. Most of their fightbacks this season have ended in draws, three of them to be precise, hence that place in mid-table with only two wins. “It was an emotional game for us,” said Les Kiss, the Exiles’ head coach. “To get away from a draw is very welcome.”