Harlequins stun Toulouse

The Amlin Challenge Cup Champions overturned last week’s convincing defeat at the hands of the French side to throw Pool 6 wide open with two rounds of action remaining.

Nick Evans starred at fly-half controlling his side who outscored their hosts three tires to two, with Mike Brown touching down twice and Joe Gray grabbing the other.

Quins didn’t have it all their own way, Toulouse contributed on their part but the visitors thoroughly deserved the victory.

Toulouse stunned Harlequins last weekend at the Stoop with a sublime performance but it was the visitors who came out of the blocks the quickest at Le Stadium, shocking the hosts in the opening forty minutes.

Kiwi fly-halves Luke McAlister and Nick Evans exchanged penalties in the opening five minutes but it was Quins who deservedly got their noses in front with the first try.

After sustained pressure, Evans put though a delightfully weighted grubber kick into the corner and full-back Mike Brown raced through and collected, touching down in the corner.

Both sides threw everything at each other in attack and defence and Toulouse should have regained the lead but McAlister was off target with three penalties in quick succession.

Instead of Toulouse scoring next it was Quins who grabbed their second try to stun the home support.  In a stunning move, Evans spotted space behind the Toulouse first line of defence and his up and under bounced well for the chasing support and four quick interchanges saw Joe Gray receive the ball and the hooker touched down for a converted score.

That score sparked life back into Toulouse and from the restart they bombarded Quins with attack after attack.  The introduction of Florian Fritz to the midfield added a new direction but their opening try came from the pack.

After another quick attack McAlister fed Romain Millo-Chluski in the midfield and the second row darted through the gap, drew the covering defence to second Yoann Maestri under the posts.

Toulouse came out after the interval in the same frame of mind that they ended the first and they dominated the opening 15 minutes for the second period.

Scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain who took over the kicking duties at the end of the first-half slotted three early penalties to hand the lead back to the hosts for the first time since the fifth minute.

But the game then took another swing as Quins forced their way on top.  Directly from the restart, replacement wing Tom Williams chased the kick and forced a turnover for the visitors. The ball was recycled right and Brown had an easy run in to score his second.

Evans converted and then kicked another penalty to stretch his side’s advantage to 25-19.

Toulouse though responded in typical fashion with Doussain grabbing a try of his own as he snuck round the side of a ruck.  He was off target with his conversion, leaving his side a point behind.

It was the cool Evans though who had the final say, kicking two more penalties as the clock ran down to secure the victory.