Gloucester 24 Harlequins 20: Richards lets rip at referee as Gloucester clinch thriller

Quins peeved by penalty count but Malone misses chances to mollify his angry coach

(Getty Images)

No disrespect to Saracens, who were beaten at Twickenham, and Bristol, who were outplayed at the Stoop, but for Harlequins, whose two victories briefly put them at the top of the Guinness Premiership for the first time in living memory, this match at Gloucester was the most acidic of tests.

In the end the litmus paper turned red but the Cherry and Whites were distinctly uncomfortable for the best part of an hour and only felt remotely safe after Olly Barkley contributed his first points for his new club.

Quins, who were in danger of being cut adrift in the second half, once again silenced the Shed with a try that made it 21-20 to the home side, but in the final quarter every decision went Gloucester's way.

Barkley, signed at the end of last season from Bath, had not exactly set Kingsholm alight in what was an extremely tight encounter. After the stand-off Willie Walker had been replaced by Ryan Lamb in the second half, Barkley took over the kicking duties. He was presented with a straightforward penalty after 74 minutes, and pushed it wide. Groans all round. Two minutes later he had a chance to make amends. He landed the kick. Cheers all round.

Quins had stunned Gloucester with two tries inside the opening quarter of an hour and they would have been even better off had Chris Malone, playing in place of the injured Nick Evans at No 10, landed some early goal-kicks. The Australian was woefully short with an effort from the halfway line in the seventh minute and three minutes later, from a much more amenable range, he struck an upright. The referee, Rob Debney, who later came in for criticism from all sides, intelligently allowed play to continue through a multitude of phases at the end of which the full-back, Mike Brown, slipped through an exhausted defence from 10 yards. Malone missed a fairly easy conversion.

A few minutes later Walker put up a high ball (under the new laws this has become a trademark), Brown returned it with interest and Olivier Azam failed to gather. When the ball bounced loose Danny Care, who so far has been the scrum-half of the season, was the first to react and he sprinted over from about 30 yards. At this point Quins might have been better off using Molly Malone as a kicker, for their stand-off once again missed the conversion from a none-too-difficult angle.

As they only lost by four points, these kicks took on an added importance. Olly Morgan made it 10-5 with Gloucester's first try on 24 minutes and the full-back, who has shown good form this season, did well to get over in the left-hand corner, where there were more defenders than room. A minute later Malone was presented with another opportunity, this time from in front of the posts, and he kicked it to give Quins an eight-point lead at half-time.

If Quins knew anything it was that Gloucester would hit them with everything in the second half. They were not wrong. Quins could barely move off the back foot for the second 40 minutes and the frustration of it all was too much for Dean Richards.

Afterwards, he let rip. "At half-time I saw the referee being lambasted by Gloucester's head coach," Richards, Quins' director of rugby, claimed, "and in the second half we lost the penalty count eight to nothing. If that is what it takes I might start doing it." At this rate referees are going to need diplomatic immunity.

The second half belonged to Gloucester and they quickly cut the deficit to two points, Walker kicking a penalty and a drop goal after a great phase of play. However, it took them an hour to hit the front for the first time, Walker landing a penalty for 14-13 after Will Skinner, the Quins captain, received a yellow card for killing the ball. Three minutes later Quins had their backs turned when Rory Lawson took a tap penalty and Luke Narraway sent a back-row colleague, Alasdair Strokosch, haring through a gap. The flanker showed great pace to get over from about 50 yards.

In 20 minutes Gloucester had gone from 13-5 down to 21-13 up and that appeared to be that, but what appeared to be another meaningless Quins high ball brought a rich dividend as the defence failed to clear, Lesley Vainikolo made a hash of it and Malone was able to glide over from close range. Lo and behold, Malone made the conversion – although Molly couldn't have missed that one.

Gloucester: O Morgan; M Watkins, M Tindall (capt), O Barkley, L Vainikolo; W Walker (R Lamb, 65), G Cooper (R Lawson, 54); N Wood, O Azam, C Nieto (A Dickinson, 17), W James (A Titterrell, 70), A Brown (M Bortolami, 65), A Strokosch, L Narraway, A Hazell (P Buxton, 53).

Harlequins: M Brown; D Strettle, G Tiesi, J Turner-Hall, U Monye; C Malone, D Care; C Jones, T Fuga (G Botha, 57), M Ross, O Kohn (J Evans, 57), G Robson, C Robshaw (T Guest, 57), N Easter, W Skinner (capt).

Referee: R Debney (Leicestershire).