Harlequins vs Worcester match report: Danny Care inspires five-try win for Quins as Ben Te'o pushes England claim
Harlequins 36 Worcester Warriors 14: Care scored the first of five tries, but even in defeat Ben Te'o was able to stake his claim for the England 12 jersey
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Your support makes all the difference.Harlequins will send their six England players off to the national team’s training camp tomorrow with the club’s impressive unbeaten home record intact, after captain Danny Care led the way to a five-try rout of Worcester.
Care popped up to score in support of Tim Visser’s interception breakaway in the fourth minute as the livewire scrum-half celebrated his first league appearance since injuring his ribs in the brilliant defensive effort that helped give Quins a famous win over Saracens here in September.
Northampton and Stade Francais have also been put away at the Stoop, with Bristol another opponent beaten over the road at Twickenham on the opening weekend, but this subjugation of Worcester was far from straightforward as the Premiership’s second-bottom club hurt Quins with their driving maul and also the footwork and crash-ball threat of England candidate Ben Te’o.
Care has held off the competing claims of Wasps’ Dan Robson to join Ben Youngs of Leicester in the England squad heading to Portugal tomorrow night to begin the build-up to the Autumn internationals, which start against South Africa on 12 November.
Five of the England Quins started here, with only the tighthead prop Kyle Sinckler missing in order to rest an arm ligament injury that needed a scan earlier in the week. Quins’ director of rugby John Kingston said the club had “erred on the side of caution” and the 23-year-old south Londoner should be fine to face the Boks if selected as the bench understudy to Leicester’s Dan Cole.
Care was one of several home players whose decision-making let them down in a wobbly first half, but he was perfectly placed to finish the early try as Visser repeated the interception trick he had brought off against Sarries five weeks ago, and Evans converted for 7-0.
Te’o may claim the England No.12 jersey this autumn, if head coach Eddie Jones breaks up the George Ford-Owen Farrell midfield combination, and the former rugby league star who joined Worcester from Leinster in the summer showed he has plenty of subtlety to go with his more obvious substance.
A slashing break by Te’o direct from a line-out in the 10th minute embarrassed Harlequins’ defence and made a try for his fellow centre Jackson Willison, converted by the impressive young full-back Jamie Shillcock who later switched to fly-half as Worcester suffered second-half injuries.
A good team try finished by James Horwill restored Quins’ seven-point lead three minutes into the second half, after they had been relieved to get through a series of Worcester attacking line-outs without conceding a point, albeit it came at the cost of a yellow card to home prop Joe Marler.
Marler was also spotted keeping Worcester’s captain Phil Dowson grounded with a forearm applied to the chin, but was spared further sanction by referee Luke Pearce.
Meanwhile Quins grew more comfortable with a soft try by full-back Mike Brown, from Care’s quick pass out of a ruck, although Worcester replied with the New Zealander, Willison, setting Te’o up for a try converted by Shillcock.
Evans’s penalty and a galloping 80-metre interception try by the fast-paced centre Joe Marchant put the result beyond doubt, and secured the bonus point for Harlequins, with 15 minutes remaining.
But there was time for a dubious decision by referee Pearce to deny Visser a try when Care was ruled to have blocked off a Worcester chaser – an incident reminiscent of the obstruction on the All Black wing Julian Savea in last week’s New Zealand vs Australia match.
Care said afterwards “common sense should have prevailed”, claiming he had not altered his line of running. Another beef he was entitled to express was that Brown should have made the simpler pass to him rather than looping it beyond to Visser.
All was well that ended well, as it turned out, when Alofa Alofa’s sharp dart from James Chisholm’s offload made Quins’ fifth and final try for Visser.
Scorers
Harlequins: Tries: Care, Horwill, Brown, Marchant, Visser. Conversions: Evans 3, Swiel.
Worcester Warriors: Tries: Willison, Te’o. Conversions: Shillcock.
Teams
Harlequins: M Brown; M Yarde, J Marchant (rep A Alofa 69 mins), W Stanley, T Visser; N Evans (T Swiel 69), D Care (capt); J Marler (M Lambert 75), R Buchanan (J Gray 60), W Collier (A Jones 75), C Matthews (M Luamanu 59), J Horwill, C Robshaw, L Wallace (D Ward 64), J Chisholm.
Worcester Warriors: J Shillcock; C Pennell, J Willison, B Te’o, D Hammond (J Adams 66); R Lamb (Adams 52-60; W Olivier 68), J Arr (L Baldwin 68); V Rapava Ruskin (N Leleimalefaga 48), J Bregvadze (N Annett 59), N Schonert (J Johnston 49), D O’Callaghan, D Barry, A Faosiliva, C Kirwan (D Potgieter 60), P Dowson (capt).
Referee: L Pearce (RFU).
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