Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson admitted his “relief” that Danny Care avoided a red card after referee Karl Dickson controversially opted not to show the scrum-half a second yellow card.
Care pushed James Ramm behind as he reached the breakdown before troubling Alex Mitchell, preventing him from picking up the ball with a clear chance waiting, in the second half of his side’s 41-32 win over Northampton Saints at Twickenham.
The former England scrum-half had already spent 10 minutes in the sin bin during the first half for making head contact with Courtney Lawes in a tackle, and Wilson admitted he feared the worst when Dickson – a former Harlequins player – lunged at his hand seemed to seize. bag after Care pushed Ramm and fell on the caterpillar.
The incident was then reviewed several times by Dickson and the television match official before Dickson subsequently concluded that a penalty alone was a significant punishment and Quins immediately replaced Care, who left the field and appeared to grin with relief.
“I thought the ball was out, I’m trying to get the ball,” Care said afterwards. “A little argument ensued, which may have helped me.”
TNT Sports pundit Lawrence Dallaglio was convinced that this act of foul play should have resulted in a second yellow card and that a dismissal could have had a major impact on the result at the start of the final quarter, when Quins led 26-20 was standing.
“It was a yellow card,” said Dallaglio, while his former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll added: “He (Dickson) went to his pocket and then saw it was Danny Care.”
Wilson admitted that the Harlequins coaching team had been preparing for a red card when the incident occurred and were relieved by Dickson’s decision.
“Yes. If I’m honest,” said Wilson. “I’m not saying he deserved one. I’m just saying you know you’re in the hands of the referee. It was an incident that put Danny and us at a disadvantage can meet.
“We immediately planned (that) if it was a yellow scenario – worst case scenario, what we were going to do to put Porter on and get someone off. But thank God that wasn’t the case and we persevered.”
Phil Dowson, Northampton’s director of rugby, refused to get involved in the incident.
“Karl has looked closely at it, the TMO has looked closely at it several times,” said Dowson. “They took their time and if they thought it wasn’t a second yellow card, it wasn’t.”
Report: Harlequins keep play-off hopes alive in a ragged Twickenham try-fest
An entertaining match with ten tries and three yellow cards, with victory for Harlequins keeping their hopes of a Premiership play-off spot alive as they put the brakes on for a Northampton Saints side who looked to be fighting their way freely to make their way to the play-offs. title. But ultimately you wonder what the respective opponents of next weekend’s Champions Cup semi-final, Toulouse and Leinster, made of this?
The conclusion is likely to be more damning for the Saints, whose previously combative defense was taken apart too easily by a Harlequins side that had already secured their four-try bonus point in the 46th minute.
Northampton’s vaunted attack also faltered, failing to capitalize on the three yellow cards for Quins players Danny Care, Louis Lynagh and Tyrone Green.
It is true that the match could have come to a different conclusion had Care been shown a second yellow card in the second half for pushing on the back of Saints wing James Ramm before killing the ball, when referee Karl Dickson initially only his pocket seemed to reach to deem the incident worthy of a fine only after assessment. Quins immediately replaced Care for safety and his replacement Will Porter had a match-winning impact by scoring two late tries.
Overall, the match felt too loose and error-ridden to serve as a testing ground in preparation for the respective trips to Toulouse and Dublin. But at least Quins delivered a try-scoring template that they believe will be crucial to their hopes of causing trouble in France, while Alex Dombrandt produced a powerful performance that will not have gone unnoticed by the England head coach Steve Borthwick.
“What you saw tonight was the intention to score tries,” Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson said. There’s no point in trying to get three, six and nine points against a team like Toulouse and a team like Northampton.”
Northampton still had chances to win the match, but were ultimately undone by a host of handling errors and a lack of ruthlessness in finishing. Phil Dowson’s side remain on course to finish top of the table but he knows this level of performance will not give Leinster sleepless nights this week.
“We’re going to have to be significantly better,” Dowson said. “Defensively we weren’t quite on it and it didn’t feel or look like us. We have to find out from a coaching point of view why that was and make sure we are a lot better next week.
Harlequins had made their intentions clear as early as the second minute when, after a flowing attack down the left, Marcus Smith perfectly executed a cross kick for Luke Northmore to score the first of two tries.
Saints responded substantively, Ollie Sleightholme finishing off a counter-attack after George Furbank had collected a chip from Care, and Finn Smith and Alex Mitchell had pushed the ball wide of Tom Litchfield to kick forward to the line.
When Fin Smith kicked in a penalty to extend the lead to five points, there was little sign of the riveting chaos that was to follow. Northmore’s second try put Harlequins back into the lead and although Finn Smith restored Northampton’s lead with a second penalty after Lynagh was shown a yellow card for deliberately knocking over a pass, Harlequins finished the half six points ahead after a close-range try through Stephen. Lewis.
Saints saw a try disallowed by Sam Graham when Alex Mitchell was judged to have narrowly struck the ball, and it summed up their frustrations. Once Cadan Murley scored from a Marcus Smith pop pass, Quins should have taken control of the game, but it wasn’t that kind of afternoon.
Ramm brought Saints back within six points, before Litchfield’s second try briefly put Saints back in front before Porter’s double sealed the match.
Match details
Scoring order: 5-0, Northmore tries; 5-5, Sleighthome try, 5-7, Smith con; 5-10 Smith pin; 10-10, Northmore tries, 12-10, M Smith con; 12-13, Smith con; 17-13, Lewies tries, 19-13, M Smith con; 24-13, Murley tries, 26-13, M Smith con; 26-18, Ramm tries, 26-20, Smith con; 26-25, Litchfield try, 26-27, Smith con; 31-27, Porter tries; 36-27, Porter tries; 38-27, Evans con; 38-33, Lawes tries; 41-32, Evans pen;
Harlequins: T Groen, L Lynagh, L Northmore, A Esterhuizen, C Murley (O Baard 66), M Smith (J Evans 72), D Care; F Baxter (J Marler 54), J Walker (S Riley 68), W Collier (S Kerrod 54), I Herbst, S Lewies (G Hammond 68), C Cunningham-South (W Trenholm 72), W Evans, A Dombrandt .
Saints from Northampton: G Furbank, J Ramm, T Freeman, T Litchfield, O Sleightholme (F Dingwall 50); F Smith, A Mitchell, E Iyogun (T Haffar 62), S Matavesi (R Smith 62), T Davison (E Millar-Mills 62), T Mayanavanua (C Munga 62), T Lockett, C Lawes, L Ludlam (A Scott-Young 62), S Graham (J August 50)
Referee: K. Dickson (RFU)
Presence: 58,592