Worcester show fight but Marcus Smith inspires Harlequins to hold on in 76-point try-fest despite mass absentees

Harlequins 41 Worcester Warriors 35: 18-year-old fly-half Smith scored 18 points against a Warriors side still rooted to the bottom of the Premiership

Marcus Smith scored his first Premiership try in Harlequins' 41-35 win over Worcester (Getty)

Maybe there is life in the Premiership relegation fight yet. Worcester Warriors, the bottom club, remain without a win in their seven league matches this season but they outscored Harlequins – who had dropped their England wing Marland Yarde for the second week running – by six tries to five here, gaining two bonus points along the way, and with a little more luck and accuracy from the kicking tee the result might have been an even greater shock.

Both clubs came into this fixture with disruption as the inescapable backdrop.

Amid strong rumours of Harlequins being ready to show Yarde the door, and the England wing agreeing a move to Premiership rivals Sale Sharks, there had also been a wholesale reshaping of the home front row, with Joe Marler, Dave Ward and Kyle Sinckler suspended, and Rob Buchanan, Joe Gray and Phil Swainston injured.

Worcester travelled with just one league point to their name, and Alan Solomons as acting director of rugby while his fellow South African, Gary Gold, is on a break in Cape Town for another fortnight.

The DoR role is being advertised, for the incomer to take over next season, but this Warriors’ team was selected by Solomons, taking soundings from Gold and in combination with head coach Carl Hogg, and they were contemplating a very welcome upturn when they led 18-17 at half-time.

Quins, meanwhile, were on the way to their fifth consecutive concession of a try bonus in the league and Europe, so they need to improve their defence.

It was a shame for Worcester that the goal-kicking of Australian fly-half Jono Lance was not up to the general standard of his game management and scuttling distribution, as the short-term loanee missed all three conversions of Worcester’s first-half tries, plus a penalty.

Two stray conversions by Tom Heathcote in the second half meant 13 kicking points went west for Worcester while Marcus Smith did not miss for Quins, if we do not count one attempt that fell off the tee before the teenager could strike it, and he ran out of time for the re-take.

Smith kicked all five conversions that proved the difference for Quins (Getty)

And in any case that odd incident, which gave Worcester a scrum put-in, ended in a Harlequins try as their pack splintered the opposition, and Danny Care grubber-kicked his way skilfully over the line.

Quins, who started the day in seventh place in the Premiership, had taken the lead after three minutes through Smith’s first senior try – a smart finish through a gap as the 18-year-old arrived to take a pass from a ruck on a deep angle in the home side’s favoured style, with a decoy runner ahead of him.

Smith converted his own score and added a penalty goal in the 22nd minute but in the meantime Worcester had grabbed two tries, as No 8 Dave Denton profited from a barrelling break by centre Wynand Olivier, and right wing Perry Humphreys got on the end of a cross-kick as Quins twice ran out of wide defenders.

Lance landed a penalty from 45 metres to nudge Worcester ahead again, 13-10, for a soft post-tackle offence by home hooker Elia Elia.

Danny Care scored a brilliant individual try (Getty)

The amazing prospect of Warriors completing a try-scoring bonus before the interval loomed large as full-back Josh Adams scored with 28 minutes gone from Lance’s clever flick-on, after good driving by Denton.

But Quins stopped that mini-rot, and finished the half with the relief of a second try of their own, from the same source as the opener. A line-out near the Worcester goalline saw the ball moved into midfield where Jamie Roberts blasted Jonny Arr from his path, and No 8 Mat Luamanu followed up to dive over. Smith converted.

Care’s footballing try and a bonus-point effort by Roberts in the 55 minute from Care’s tapped penalty had Quins 31-18 up.

And when Charlie Walker, in the absent Yarde’s position, made a wonderful weaving run to the line, the 20-point gap may have been more like what the 14,000-plus Stoop crowd had come to see, or expected.

Worcester kept going mightily, though, and replacement wing Dean Hammond snaffled a pair of tries – the first of them from substitute scrum-half Michael Dowsett’s quick tap – before the highly-rated hooker Jack Singleton, another on from the bench, rounded the tries off, with Heathcote, at long last from a Warriors’ viewpoint, adding the conversion.

Young Worcester hooker Jack Singleton came off the bench to score a try (Getty)

Asked if he was pleased to have made up ground on second-from-bottom London Irish, Hogg said: “I know it’s a cliché but we are very much focussed on ourselves, and we’re progressing.

“We’ve had tough [Premiership] games at home against Exeter, Wasps and Saracens, when it was tough to pick up points. We’ll give some senior players a rest in the next couple of weeks, and go again.”

Scorers:

Harlequins: tries: Smith, Luamanu, Care, Roberts, Walker; conversions: Smith 5; penalties: Smith, Swiel.

Worcester Warriors: tries: Denton, Humphreys, Adams, Hammond 2, Singleton; conversion: Heathcote; penalty: Lance.

Teams

Harlequins: M Brown; C Walker, A Alofa, J Roberts, T Visser; M Smith (T Swiel 69), D Care (C Mulchrone 69); M Lambert (L Boyce 59), E Elia, W Collier, B Glynn (C Matthews 59), J Horwill (capt), J Chisholm, C Robshaw, M Luamanu (D Lamb 76).

Replacements not used: C Piper, J McNulty, H Sloan

Worcester Warriors: J Adams; P Humphreys, W Olivier (T Heathcote, 40), J Willison, T Howe (D Hammond 65); J Lance, J Arr (M Dowsett 52); E Waller (R Bower 57), J Taufete’e (J Singleton 51), G Milasinovich (B Alo 57), D O’Callaghan (capt; P Phillips 57), W Spencer, A Faosiliva, S Lewis, D Denton (H Taylor 52).

Referee: JP Doyle (RFU).

Official attendance: 14,345.