Flair of Care preserves Quins' dynamic start

Ulster's Williams fumes as England's scrum-half hopefuls battle for attention

(GETTY IMAGES)

A couple of seasons ago, Harlequins were in National League One. Look at them now. They are doing well in the Guinness Premiership and even better in the Heineken Cup, in which they are prospering in Pool Four.

Yesterday Quins outplayed Ulster by six tries to three in a thoroughly entertaining match and there wasn't a great deal of surprise about the result. If the home side are on a high, Ulster have seen better days. Indeed, it is hard to reconcile that, in 1999, the Red Hand brigade became the champions of Europe. It was a different age.

Quins, who crept into this year's competition as the sixth-placed English team, have got off to a flier. Last weekend they came from 19-3 behind to stun the Scarlets at Stradey Park and here they had a bonus point in the bag long before the end.

Danny Care, the Quins scrum-half who is currently in the form of his life, gave another virtuoso display, adding to his recent try-scoring exploits while generally causing the Northern Ireland province all kinds of grief.

Care was in his element here, at least until the 50th minute when he illegally harassed his opposite number, Cillian Willis, and was sent to the sin bin. He did not reappear but then Quins could afford that luxury, especially when they are able to introduce a replacement of the calibre of Andy Gomarsall.

Dean Richards, the Quins coach, thinks that Care and Gomarsall should be numbers one and two for the England No 9 jersey. But then he would say that, wouldn't he?

Care was inevitably at the core of almost everything Quins tried and his try in the 32nd minute just about summed up his season to date. Nick Easter took a line-out deep into Ulster territory and made good ground before linking with Care.

Give the scrum-half a sight of the line and he goes at it like a startled whippet. A defender managed to get a hand on his jersey but Care's speed and strength took him clean through to the posts.

It opened up a 20-7 lead and seven minutes later, Quins notched up a bonus point courtesy of a penalty try. Chris Malone put through a grub kick towards the line and Ugo Monye was blatantly body-checked by Darren Cave. Nobody knows whether Monye would have got the try but the referee Tim Hayes had no hesitation in running to the posts.

This was just about the last straw for the Ulster coach, Matt Williams, who afterwards was scathing about the referee. It has become an all too familiar trend. You lose on the road and the fall guy is the ref. "The penalty count in the first half was 8-0 to Quins," said Williams, the Australian who once coached Scotland.

"The referee influenced most of their scores," he added. "It was very, very frustrating. It is the total inconsistency that is worrying. We couldn't get any possession for 25 minutes and no side can survive a penalty try and sin-binning."

The Ulster flanker Matt McCullough received a yellow card after 27 minutes and while he was off he had his head bandaged. Seconds later, Care shot around the short side of a lineout and Tom Williams, on the overlap, was put over in the right-hand corner. Studying videos of Ulster, the Quins coaching staff thought the visitors were prone to lapses of discipline and they thought right.

Ulster, who lost their opening Heineken Cup match, at home to Stade Français, made an encouraging start here, the right wing Timoci Nagusa crossing after a fine move.

When Mike Brown chipped ahead and was flattened by McCullough, Ollie Kohn, who was not alone, went mad and as the referee intervened, a tape of "Give Peace a Chance" was played at the Stoop.

Malone kicked the penalty to make it 3-7 and Quins had hit the front by the 14th minute when that man Care took a lightning-quick tap penalty from which the powerful Jordan Turner-Hall broke a tackle to crash over.

Although Malone missed three goalkicks out of four, Quins led by 20 points at half-time and two minutes after the break they increased it to 34-7. Tom Williams, who had an excellent match, put in a clever little grub kick to the left-hand corner and Brown, with very little room and seemingly hemmed in by defenders, did brilliantly to pick up and snaffle a try.

Ulster, whose supporters were sizeable and noisy (there were one or two flags from the Falls Road), did not capitulate. Far from it. While Care was doing time, they added two more tries, both of them well-worked, from Paddy Wallace and Andrew Trimble, and with the stand-off Niall O'Connor adding conversions, the deficit was down to 13 points with 20 minutes remaining.

Their cause, however, was not helped by their propensity for turning over ball and it was one such act of generosity that enabled Malone to launch a cross kick of pinpoint accuracy for Williams to take it in his stride and dash over without an Ulsterman to disturb him.

Harlequins: M Brown; T Williams, U Monye (T Masson, 58), J Turner-Hall, C Amesbury; C Malone (W Luveniyali, 71), D Care (A Gomarsall, 62); C Jones, G Botha (T Fuga, 62), M Ross (M Lambert, 67), O Kohn (G Robson, 62), J Evans, C Robshaw (T Guest, 66), N Easter, W Skinner (capt).

Ulster: B Cunningham; T Nagusa, D Cave, P Wallace (R Dewey, 67), A Trimble; N O'Connor (I Humphreys, 62), C Willis (I Boss, 67); T Court (J Fitzpatrick, 46), R Best (capt) (N Brady 71), B Botha, C Del Fava (E O'Donoghue, 46), R Caldwell, M McCullough, R Diack, D Pollack (K Dawson, 52).

Referee: T Hayes (Wales).