Harlequins hold on with 14 men to earn bonus-point win at Gloucester

[ASFN Admin]

Gloucester 24-34 Harlequins Harlequins are good value away from home these days. Hot on the heels of their 49-29 win at Northampton they battled against all the odds to pick up a bonus point at Kingsholm after being reduced to 13 men for 10 minutes in the second half. Having seen South African centre Andre Esterhuizen dismissed for an alleged elbow to the face of Lloyd Evans five minutes into the second half, they then lost lock Glen Young to a yellow card three minutes later. They were still holding onto their 17-10 interval lead at that stage, but with 2,000 fans baying for blood around the Gloucester ground the odds were stacked against them, Yet before Young returned they firstly rode out the storm and ended their 10 minute spell by conjuring up a third try for Nathan Earle. Better was to follow five minutes later when a spiralling up and under from the superb Marcus Smith bounced into Quins arms and was quickly transferred to Alex Dombrandt who galloped 25 metres for his second try of the night to secure the bonus point. Add in a Smith drop goal and it was game, set and match. “It was a decent performance in adversity. I didn’t see the incident that led to the sending off, but I spoke to Andrew after the game,” said Quins director of rugby Paul Gustard.

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