Harlequins 13 Cardiff Blues 13: Quins' hopes hang by a thread

In the week when the Guinness Premiership clubs celebrated an agreement with the Rugby Football Union which will be worth £110 million, Harlequins failed to cash in. Their chances of progressing in the Heineken Cup are virtually dead in the water of Pool Three.

The "peace in our time" deal between the RFU and the clubs contains a Catch-22. If the professional game in England is enriched as a whole, it will have a lot more money to recruit players from overseas, particularly from the southern hemisphere. The RFU have been under pressure to do something about this, hence the line about greater reward for clubs concentrating on homegrown talent. Thatwill not stop recruitmentfrom abroad.

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The agreement was described by Rob Andrew, England's elite rugby director, as an "English solution for the English game". The English patients yesterday were Quins, for home wins in the Heineken are vital. Last week they lost to Stade Français in Paris while the Blues picked up a bonus-point win over Bristol. "We'll have to win all our remaining games to stand a chance," Dean Richards, the Quins director of rugby, said.

Though encouraged to provide England-qualified players, Quins, who are by no means alone, are reluctant to do so at stand-off. A couple of seasons ago they invested heavily in the All Black Andrew Merhtens, but they did as well if not better with the young Englishman Adrian Jarvis at No 10.

Yesterday Jarvis was on the bench, understudying Chris Malone, who happens to be an Australian. Malone is competent and experienced but no world-beater. Not even a Blues-beater. He had three attempts at a drop goal here and missed the lot. For the third, which might have been the match-winner, he had so much time he could have autographed the ball before kicking it. Still it went wide.

"If we'd won it wouldn't have put us through and if we'd lost it wouldn't have put us out," Dai Young, the Blues coach, said. "We certainly didn't come here for a draw but we've got seven points out of a possible 10."

That is five more than Quins, who felt they should have won in the dying seconds when Malone was poised for yet another drop-goal attempt. But his half-back partner, Andy Gomarsall, instead of passing, took the ball back to the forwards and the chance was lost.

A Malone penalty – he missed one of those as well – gave his side the lead after six minutes of a dire first half. The forwards went at it like rutting stags and the front rows were often lectured by the referee, Pascal Gauzere. Part of the problem was that Monsieur Gauzere, although pedantic, never really took a firm grip on the game.

It took the Blues 25 minutes to break into their opponents' 22, where Ben Blair kicked a penalty to level it after 26 minutes. Quins got a try on the stroke of half-time. Gomarsall's optimistic kick took a wicked bounce which wrong-footed Tom James and fell for David Strettle. James got back to foil Strettle, who was heading for the posts, and Cardiff scrambled the ball into touch. But the line-out was one of Quins' strengths. Chris Robshaw took it and Nick Easter, who twice went off for treatment to a head wound, drove over.

After Blair's second penalty Cardiff got a try on 60 minutes, putting them ahead before Malone levelled the score. For the try, Ugo Monye claimed a mark, smacked into a post as he did so and then missed touch, allowing James to advance down the right touchline and give an inside pass for Jason Spice to score. Spice is a New Zealander, one of four in the Blues side. But that's another story.

Harlequins: M Brown; S Keogh, D Strettle, De Wet Barry, U Monye; C Malone, A Gomarsall; C Jones,T Fuga, M Ross, O Kohn, J Evans, C Robshaw, NEaster, P Volley (capt).

Cardiff Blues: B Blair; T James, J Robinson, T Shanklin, G Thomas; D Flannigan, J Spice; G Jenkins, R Thomas (G Williams, 65), T Filise, D Jones, P Tito (R Sidoli, 71), M Molitika, X Rush (capt),M Williams.

Referee: P Gauzere (France).