Leinster cling to bonus point after Harlequins grind to win

Defeat at the Stoop was not part of their plan to return to the top of the European tree, nor was another toothless attacking performance but the losing bonus point they checked in to the hold on their flight back last night is some solace as they face into a quick turnaround before doing it all again at the Aviva Stadium.

They will need to be a lot better this Saturday after enduring a torrid time at the scrum, while too often they were far too lateral with ball in hand despite an improved display from Jimmy Gopperth.

Once more at this venue, it came down to a drop at goal but there would be no return for Nick Evans who limped off after 13 minutes and this time Danny Care closed out the game with an impressive strike off his 'bad' left foot, on the run.

Harlequins top the pool at the halfway stage, but given they finished the match with the ball in Leinster territory, they might regret kicking it dead rather than ramming home their advantage.

That was secured in a hectic five minute period before the hour-mark as Nick Easter powered over and Alesi Tikoirotuma ran an intercept home from inside his own half.

According to their coach, Leinster "should have been good enough to win from there" and they narrowed the gap to three through Ian Madigan, but they couldn't close it out.

"I thought we came back into it very well against a very motivated side," Matt O'Connor reflected. "They can get away from you pretty quick. The point is important. There's no question.

"At the end of the group stages, that point could be the difference. We'll take that lick our wounds and make sure we will be better next week."

The Australian lamented his side's lack of control with ball in hand, particularly during a first half where they made a habit of squandering field position when they began to look threatening.

Ultimately, though, their set-piece cost them while Harlequins' returning England stars had more of an impact than the Irish players given last weekend off.

As a result, they spent far too little time in the Quins' 22 and never looked like scoring a try for the second successive week.

"I thought they played very, very, well but we were a bit off in the first half," O'Connor conceded.

"I thought we fought our way back into it quite well and then the intercept was instrumental. It was a little bit too big of a hill to climb.

"We didn't control set-piece. We didn't get any dominance and with a French referee away from home that is massive. We spoke a lot about it this week. Disappointing. We thought it would be a lot closer contest up there and the beauty of sport is you have got a week to fix it."

Leinster were sloppy in a disjointed first half even though Ian Madigan had put them in front from the kicking tee after just three minutes following some good pressure.

Nick Evans levelled soon after when Jack McGrath went off his feet at a ruck and it was symptomatic of the ill-discipline that hurt the visitors who got on referee Jerome Garces' bad side and, although they lost their All Black out-half to injury after just 13 minutes, recent emergency signing Tim Swiel put Harlequins in front at the second attempt after Jordi Murphy played the ball from an offside position.

Leinster's defence held together when called on and they managed a rare trip into enemy territory as Sean Cronin's throw to the tail gave Jimmy Gopperth the platform to break the line and off-load to Luke Fitzgerald, but the hosts killed the ball and Madigan levelled from the kicking tee.

Gopperth tried his luck with a long-range penalty that fell short before Conor O'Shea's men upped the intensity appreciably by getting their big ball carriers going. Joe Marler put Murphy on his behind before Chris Robshaw and Easter made inroads. McGrath went off his feet and Swiel kicked the penalty.

Madigan was able to level before the break as Leinster began to use their maul to good effect and another Quins collapse allowed him nudge the Blues in front after half-time.

Disrupted

Despite a fine burst from Rhys Ruddock, it was the English side who looked the more threatening and Marler opted to turn down a kickable penalty to go for the corner to ram home their edge.

Although Leinster disrupted the throw, the Quins pack still managed to retain the ball and while the maul didn't get them there, they used their carriers to batter the Leinster line until former England No 8 Easter forced his way through McGrath's tackle to touch the ball down on the line.

Swiel converted and, despite losing Gordon D'Arcy to a recurrence of his calf injury and switching Luke Fitzgerald into the centre, Leinster began to open up and things looked promising when Kearney's perfectly-weighted chip allowed Fanning to storm into the 22.

Leinster went wide, but Fijian Tikoirotuma read Kearney's intentions brilliantly and picked off his pass to Zane Kirchner, running the length of the field to score.

Despite Swiel shanking the kickable conversion, Quins held a two-score lead and O'Connor's men faced an uphill battle.

They made progress through Kearney and Rhys Ruddock only for Mike Brown to get a boot into a ruck, before Robshaw thundered through to drill Heaslip backwards.

Some poor discipline from the hosts allowed Gopperth establish field position and with Isaac Boss dictating the tempo, Dave Ward conceded a penalty that allowed Madigan narrow the gap to six points.

Crossing in the home midfield allowed Gopperth find a good touch and Cronin found Heaslip to allow Leinster maul. Ruddock broke free and although the promising move ended with Fanning running into a team-mate, Garces was playing advantage and Madigan nailed the penalty to make it a three-point game.

Leinster had the momentum and young Jack Conan made a brilliant steal after a Brown carry to set Cronin racing, but his attempted offload to Fanning went to deck.

Things turned again as Boss kicked out on the full and Devin Toner touched the jumper in the air, Quins attacked and Care nailed his drop-goal on the run.

They could have gone for the jugular, but were content with taking a three-point lead at the helm of Pool 2. All to play for next week at the Aviva, then, where the ticket sales have ticked past 35,000.

"We know it will be an unbelievable contest, the players will enjoy it and it will be a nice place to work tomorrow but it's half-time," O'Shea concluded.

Harlequins: M Brown; M Yarde, M Hopper, G Lowe, A Tikoirotuma; N Evans (T Swiel 12), D Care; J Marler (capt) (D Marfo 75), D Ward (J Gray 67), W Collier (K Sinclair 67); C Matthews, G Robson; L Wallace (J Clifford 64), C Robshaw, N Easter.

Leinster: R Kearney; D Fanning, G D'Arcy, I Madigan, L Fitzgerald; J Gopperth, E Reddan (I Boss 4-11, 61)); J McGrath, S Cronin, M Ross (T Furlong 76); D Toner, M McCarthy (K Douglas 61); R Ruddock, J Murphy (J Conan 61), J Heaslip (capt).

Referee: J Garces (France).