Christmas is a time for giving and Bayonne presented this game to Harlequins by selecting an inexperienced side who realistically stood no chance. Manu Tuilagi and Gareth Anscombe were listed as injured, along with plenty of others, but four frontline players were rested. There was nothing wrong with Bayonne giving Jonah Thompson, a 20-year-old Australian, his professional debut against rugby royalty in south-west London: but the fact he is a flanker, and was pressed into service on the right wing, was arguably pushing it a bit far.
The Champions Cup is supposedly an elite competition and that should be celebrated whenever appropriate. But the current format means too many clubs are selecting weakened sides for matches they regard as unwinnable – or rather, when they think others are more winnable. It is short-changing fans. Quins scored 10 tries, nine of them converted by Marcus Smith, the player of the match, but it rarely felt as if they were obliged to change up from second gear.
“We can only play what they put out there,” said the Harlequins senior coach, Jason Gilmore. “It’s a bit like that in the Champions Cup at the moment. Are the travelling teams full strength all the time? Probably not. But you’ve got to make sure you get your five points at home.”
The hosts, initially, proved incapable of holding on to their own ball when it counted. There was early pace and tempo, but handling errors too from Luke Northmore and Oscar Beard. Smith finally injected a bit of quality, dabbing a grubber kick for Cadan Murley to score on 22 minutes.
Tom Spring, Bayonne’s young fly-half, then failed to read a Smith cross-kick, allowing the second-row Kieran Treadwell to gallop over, and Fin Baxter capitalised on more weak defending to score from close range. That was 21-0 – apparently game over – unless the visitors could muster a comeback like Glasgow’s magnificent effort against Toulouse and Antoine Dupont on Saturday.
Harlequins David; Cleaves, Beard (Waghorn 54), Northmore (Benson 63), Murley (capt.), Smith, Porter (Friday 57); Baxter (Wenger 58), Walker (Riley 54), Delgado (Hobson 47), Pagadizábal, Lewies (Treadwell 24), Kenningham, Evans, Carr (Cunningham-South 51). Tries Murley, Treadwell 2, Baxter, Delgado, Porter 2, M Smith, Riley, Benson. Cons M Smith 9. Sin-bin Evans 34.
Bayonne Orabe; Thompson, Maqala (Jantjies 66), Mori, Hannoun; Spring (Boyle-Tiatia 57), Tilloles; Calles (Cormenier 51), Martin (Giudicelli 51), Setiano (Fepulea’i 51), Iandolino (Marchesin 75), Paulos, Fischer (capt., Traversier 51), Capilla (Heguy 51), Ariceta. Tries Paulos, Spring. Cons Spring 2. Sin-bin Iandolino 56, Heguy 64.
Referee Andrew Brace
When Spring chased a kick over the top and the Argentinian Lucas Paulos burrowed over, Will Evans was shown a yellow card into the bargain. At 21-7 and with Quins a man down, the threat of a contest hung in the air, before the prop Pedro Delgado surged over for his first Harlequins five-pointer. A bonus point secured, to go with the one Quins claimed in losing to Leinster last weekend.
After the break, when the scrum-half Will Porter darted over in the corner, Smith added a fifth conversion and that was 35-7. Spring’s lively running led to a second Bayonne try when he jinked over on the right having accepted a beautiful one-handed offload by the hooker Lucas Martin. Porter added his second try before Chandler Cunningham-South, ominously for Bayonne, appeared off the home bench.
Baptiste Heguy was the second visiting player to be sent to the sin-bin, leaving them with 13 men for a minute or so, and another Quins replacement, Sam Riley, capitalised with two tries inside five minutes.
Toulon came out on top over Bath in an entertaining nine-try contest and took a 45-34 victory at the Stade Mayol. The result means all six teams in Pool Two have a win and a loss to their name after their first two matches but Bath's bonus point means they top the table with six points, with the other sides on five. Finn Russell slotted two penalties either side of Brian Alainu'uese's try which gave Toulon a 7-6 lead. Mateo Garcia kicked three points for the hosts following a ruck infringement but Bath went ahead through Ted Hill with their first try of the game before Garcia knocked over his second penalty to make it 13-13. Toulon went eight points to the good when Juan Ignacio Brex finished off after Kyle Sinckler's powerful run, that was before Garcia kicked his third penalty of the game - but back came Bath again when Russell's delayed pass allowed Santi Carreras to cross the whitewash. Sinckler's powerful run proved troublesome again in Toulon's next try as Gael Drean picked a line to race clear and re-establish the French side's eight point lead but Bath were not going away themselves, Arthur Green dotted down to bring the deficit back to one. Toulon got their try bonus point through Lewis Ludlam but Max Ojomoh's short pass let Louie Hennessey cut the gap to four points for Bath before another penalty and Teddy Baubigny's try finished things off in the French side's favour.
In the other Pool 2 match, Edinburgh were brought back down to earth in the Champions Cup as they fell to a 33-0 defeat at Castres. The visitors claimed a stunning win over Toulon on their return to the competition last week but they were well beaten in France this time.
Bristol ran riot with nine tries as they thrashed Pau 61-12 at Ashton Gate in Pool 4. Eight different try scorers got in on the act as Bristol made it two wins from two and scored all 61 of their points – as Tom Jordan kicked eight successful conversions – within the opening hour to claim a dominant win. The England prop Ellis Genge powered over from close range open a destructive afternoon of scoring and Fitz Harding slipped the ball to Benjamin Grondona in a two-on-one situation to go under the posts for their second try. Things were threatening to get a bit ugly for the French visitors when Bristol ran in three more tries before the break courtesy of Kieran Marmion, Kalaveti Ravouvou and Gabriel Oghre’s score at the back of the maul on the stroke of half-time. There were no signs of letting up in the second period either, Benhard Janse van Rensburg crossed over four minutes into the half before Joe Batley made it 47-0. Pau got on the scoresheet through Fabien Brau-Boirie’s try under the posts but Aidan Boshoff and Grondona – who crossed over for his brace – extended the hosts’ score, while Brau-Boirie’s second try was nothing more than a consolation for the visitors.
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Jamie Benson ran in the ninth, Thompson’s profound lack of wing experience exposed again. The Australian should have a bright future and none of this is his fault. Blame the format, blame the coaches, but don’t blame him. The Ireland international Treadwell made it 10 tries but it was long since over by then.
Asked if fans want full-strength sides competing in the Champions Cup Gilmore said: “I think the players do too. They’re competitive beasts. There’s probably different factors in that, when you’re squishing the competition amongst Gallagher Prem and Top 14.
“We had this last week, we rested a few players, but by international guidelines you’ve got to … it’s hard to get the balance of it all in terms of mixing competitions, but I just look at what the boys want. They want the best every week. Is that possible for clubs? It can be really difficult.”
