Sam Riley Edges Harlequins Champions Cup Win Over Glasgow

Is there a louder crowd in England than on the stairs? Is there still a crowd in the mill? If only the Quins were as trustworthy as their followers, but life there never gets boring.

After the madness of the last two weeks, a winning try five minutes from the end might feel a little ho-hum, but after Marcus Smith opened a good lead and pulled wickedly at the strings, Quins made a habit of making the crowd sweat.

Glasgow turned the tables by taking the lead for most of the last quarter. It was only in those final minutes that the Quins finally managed one of their penalties on the corner to try a good line-up and an old-fashioned drive. And so they go to the quarterfinals.

“The fans complain that they are always on the edge of their seats,” Smith said. “Every time we are in front, we let the other team in. And that’s what we’re trying to work on, consistency. We are far from where we want to be, but we are in another knockout match in Europe.”

The home team led 21-7, which seems to be a more convincing lead than it was. All the usual qualities of the quins were there-a certain lack of concentration, a taste for chaos, a categorical refusal to take easy points.

The madness of the victory over Bath the week before, which even followed the capitulation against Saracens the week before, led to the rugby world scratching its head at the darlings of West London even more than usual. And this time they received a Glasgow team full of Scottish internationals, leading the United Rugby Championship.

Sure enough, the Warriors announced their pressure as early as the third minute, with Scott Cummings digging in closely after a 15-phase move. Quins looked disarticulated at this point. No bathing pyrotechnics here.

But they had the referee. Whether an unbalanced number of penalties is just a reward for persistent pressure or a scandalously bad enforcement of laws depends mainly on the color of your jersey, but let the record stand, the Quins received 12 penalties in this first period compared to Glasgow’s two.

Their lineup and training routines were less effective at that point and didn’t make any of the three penalties that were sent to the corner in the first quarter. When they finally scored their first try, it was at the starting of the second, after another plate failed. So they resorted to the chaos that they love. Smith’s feet were hypnotic at first and then deadly accurate a phase after when he sent a kick into the corner that André Esterhuizen touched.

Sione Tuipulotu received a yellow card 10 minutes after at Glasgow’s 10.

Smith danced through the compromised midfield for the Quins’ second goal right after a scrum, before pausing Cadan Murley for his third goal at half-time.