London Irish 15 Harlequins 20
Harlequins survived a nervy second half to get their Premiership campaign off and running with a victory at Twickenham.
Ugo Monye went over in the corner and Ollie Lindsay-Hague scored a spectacular solo try to give Quins a 20-6 lead at half-time.
Shane Geraghty’s three second half penalties reduced the deficit to just five points.
But Quins were able to keep Irish at arms length to record an opening day victory for the fourth season in a row.
With Joe Marler now captaining the side, and Marland Yarde making his debut against his former club, Quins were quick out of the blocks thanks to the boot of Nick Evans.
The fly-half opened the scoring with a penalty and initiated the move that led to the first try by kicking to the corner. The resulting line-out sparked a neat move, Monye burst to the corner and Evans converted.
A Geraghty penalty pulled it back to 10-3 but Irish’s efforts were hampered by Eamonn Sheridan being sin-binned.
After a penalty apiece, Quins grabbed a second try – and if the first was more of a team effort, this was down to individual class as Lindsay-Hague outstripped Topsy Ojo and blitzed his way down the wing before touching down.
Evans converted but also missed two other penalties during the first half that would have embossed Quins’ lead.
Marler and prop Kyle Sinckler were both sin-binned in the second half as Geraghty used Quins’ lack of discipline to chip away at the lead with three penalties.
Evans missed a late kick of his own but it made little difference as Quins held out.
In the first match of what was a double header at Twickenham to launch the Premiership season, Saracens beat Wasps 34-28.
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This post was last modified on 08/09/2014