Bringing it to 17-18: Camacho
A late converted score from Gonzalo Camacho saw Harlequins win 19-18 on Friday, snatching the Amlin Challenge Cup from Stade Français' grasp.
The wing's try with two minutes remaining on the clock still needed to be converted from five metres inside the touchline, which former All Blacks playmaker Nick Evans coolly slotted to secure the London side their third Challenge Cup triumph and a place in next season's Heineken Cup.
Stade Français owed their points to four Lionel Beauxis penalties while Mathieu Bastareaud and Martin Rodriguez each kicked a drop-goal.
The giants from Paris will now be cheering for Northampton in the Heineken Cup Final against Leinster, which takes place in the stadium next to this. However, if the Irish giants were to beat Saints, then Connacht would join Europe's elite.
What is guaranteed is that England will have seven teams in the 2011/12 competition thanks to a dramatic win that was inspired by Danny Care.
The international scrum-half was a key protagonist for Quins and had the intelligence to send through a teasing kick that Camacho latched on to. Evans, despite the angle, showed his class to convert to leave Stade Français in a race against time that they ultimately lost.
The scorers:
For Harlequins:
Try: Camacho
Con: Evans
Pen: Evans 4
For Stade Français:
Pen: Beauxis 4
Drop: Bastareaud, Rodriguez
Stade Français: 15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Julien Arias, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Guillaume Bousses, 11 Djibril Camara, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Antoine Burban, 6 James Haskell, 5 Pascal Pape, 4 Tom Palmer, 3 David Attoub, 2 Remi Bonfils, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Damien Weber, 17 Rayno Gerber, 18 Arthur Joly, 19 Arnaud Marchois, 20 Pierre Rabadan, 21 Juan Leguizamon, 22 Noel Oelschig, 23 Ollie Phillips.
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 George Lowe, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Matt Cairns, 17 Ceri Jones, 18 Mark Lambert, 19 Pete Browne, 20 Will Skinner, 21 Dave Moore. 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Ross Chisholm.
Referee: George Clancy
Comments
crunchfit says...
@bluelion
100% correct about the bedrooms issue. We took the ferry over and during the trip, our designated driver got very sick just outside Cardiff on the way to our booked accommodation. Completely incapable of drivinng. The rest of us had been drinking so we couldn't drive. We couldn't get a hotel anywhere (and I mean anywhere) and we were stuck for hours. We spent about 4 hours phoning different hotels, lodges, B&Bs, etc. We had to calculate the units, etc. to work out who could drive and added on an additional hour to be safe and we didn't get a room until Gloucestershire.
Posted 00:43 23rd May 2011
blametheref says...
Well done Quins...Feel this result will give Northampton a boost against Leinster
Posted 13:15 21st May 2011
johnnycheech says...
Dissapointing write up PR considering how good this game was. Ok it didn't have many tries but it had some great attacking play and drama at the end, which there is no mention of! Thought it deserved more than five paragraphs.....
Posted 12:04 21st May 2011
caramba13 says...
Yes Clancy was under pressure to give a penalty in the dying seconds ...but SF showed the paucity of their attack plan by opting for this negative strategy in the final two minutes. Why didn't they kick for the corner instead of attempting a hopeless 55m shot at goal just before the Quins try? They could have, at worst, pinned the Quins in their 25, or at best, scored a try. I think Clancy was reacting to this sort of negative tactic in his own negative way: no penalty for these jokers.
Posted 09:12 21st May 2011
gauca says...
Im not a SF fan and I dont begrudge the quins their victory, on balance they were the better team. I was very frustated however as a neutral when the official refused to blow the penalty near the end at scrum time, why is it some refs have not the nerve to do this? reminded me of the Ita Fra game in 6nations, yes the better team won and thats ultimately what counts but why in those instances do refs shy away from giving the penalty to the dominant scrum essentially depriving a side of a chance to win the game? very frustrating, hopefullt something similar won't occur in the HK final tomorrow.
Posted 22:56 20th May 2011
sheridan says...
What was Cheika and a few of the girls like at the end, this ain't soccer ya muppet. Suck it up
Posted 22:07 20th May 2011