O’Shea encouraged by Quins victory

Harlequins boss Conor O’Shea says his side are beginning to rediscover their best form following their gutsy 22-15 comeback victory over Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Quins trailed 12-0 to four Billy Twelvetrees penalties but Nick Easter’s converted try helped reduce the deficit to 12-10 at the interval.

And the visitors were on top from then on, securing their first win at Gloucester since 1999 thanks to second-half tries from Luke Wallace and Charlie Walker, and the kicking of Nick Evans – who added the other seven points.

“This is a massive win,” said O’Shea, whose side suffered heavy defeats against Saracens and Exeter. in a slow start to the Premiership season.

“This group – over the last five or six weeks – is back where we need to be. We know we can still get better.

“We started this huge fortnight behind the eight-ball, but we knew we were one good win away from being not far away from the top positions.”

Quins were also missing England quintet Mike Brown, Danny Care, Joe Marler Chris Robshaw and Marlon Yarde, who are part of the squad that faces South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.

O’Shea, whose side are up to fifth following a fourth league win from seven games, added: “We’ve been doing a lot of work mentally and we’re missing guys away with England but we’ve still got some senior guys out there who can read things.

“This is a very hard place to win and for some of those younger guys it’s a massive thing for them because you need them to have experience.

“We weren’t helped by a slow start and also the first two penalties weren’t penalties and that is hard.

“But the momentum shifter was a break by Charlie Walker down the wing. After that, they missed penalties, we missed opportunities but we got stronger as the game went on.”

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