Weakened Quins back in the hunt

By LEE NOLAN

Last updated at 21:19 30 June 2007

Harlequins coach Brian McDermott was

delighted to see his team stay in the Super League

play-off picture, although he was far from happy

with the performance as they beat Hull Kingston

Rovers.

Paul Sykes kicked six goals as Quins' injury-hit

squad bounced back from last week's shock loss to

bottom club Salford.

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McDermott said: "We eked out the victory, and at

times it didn't look pretty, but I don't really care.We

had four of our most senior players and best players

out this week, and so the effort the guys on the pitch

gave me was outstanding."

Try scorer Matt Gafa did have McDermott singing

his praises. The coach said: "He's a winger who is

playing in the forwards and played the full 80

minutes, and he's turned in a really effective

performance out there today. That's

something I've got to get more of out of

him as well as the other fringe players in

the squad."

The win kept Harlequins in fifth

position and on course for their second

consecutive play-off season.

McDermott said: "We've nine games left

but we're not looking forward to the end

of the season, we're looking to next week

and getting 17 guys out on the pitch who

will punch above their weight and put

their bodies on the line. That's what

we've done this week, and if we keep on

doing that then we should be fine for the

end of the season."

The game was played in horrendous

conditions at the Twickenham Stoop,

and the quality of the play reflect that in

the pouring rain and thick mud.

The match was littered with mistakes,

but Harlequins played the better in the

first half.

Hull took a 2-0 lead through a Paul

Cooke penalty after six minutes.

However, this simply stirred Quins into

life, and Mike Worrincy crashed over

from five yards for his first try of the

season.

This briefly stirred Hull into life, and

James Webster sent Ryan Tandy over

from 10 yards to level the scores.

For the next 10 minutes the game became end-to-end, with Tyrone Smith

and Mark Lennon trading tries to make

the scoreline 12-12.

The Quins' more astute back play

allowed them to take control either side

of half-time. Gafa sent Henry Paul

through the Hull defence and his inside

pass found Chad Randall for the best try

of the game just before half-time.

The teams turned round with Quins six

points to the good and this was soon

extended to eight when Sykes landed a

penalty.

As the conditions deteriorated, so did the quality of the rugby, and a series of

Quins mistakes enabled Hull KR to gain

a foothold in the game.

When Chris Chester ran under the

posts with 20 minutes to go there were

just two points in it. However, this was

as close as Rovers were to get as Gafa

responded within three minutes,

breezing through the Hull KR defence to

score.

The game was almost over but Louie

McCarthy-Scarsbrook ran over from 30

yards late on to seal the win and give the

scoreline a somewhat lop-sided look.

Hull KR will be looking anxiously over

their shoulders with Salford in a position

to leapfrog them should they win their

game in hand.

Rovers coach Justin Morgan was less

than happy after seeing his side slip to

another defeat, saying: "I'm very

disappointed.There were way too many

errors out there and every time we made an error they scored. There's no point

being down about the result.We came

down here and had good preparation

but we didn't execute it as well as we

should have down.

"We didn't do enough to win today and

we've got nine games to go now. We

probably need to win four or five of them

to be safe, and I'm still confident we can

do that.

"But we need to play better than we did

today, starting with the derby game next

week. If we play better and win then the

tide turns and we gain a load of

confidence from it.But we need to make

sure that the tide turns quickly and we

can get the job done.

"I think it was a mistake-ridden game

and I think Harlequins will also be upset

at the error count. They capitalised on

our mistakes and we didn't when they

made an error — and that was the big

difference."