Danny Care escapes red card in controversial fashion as Harlequins see off Northampton

Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson admitted his “relief” that Danny Care dodged a red card after referee Karl Dickson controversially opted not to show the scrum-half a second yellow card.

Care pushed James Ramm in the back as he reached the breakdown before impeding Alex Mitchell, stopping him from picking up the ball with a clear opportunity waiting, in the second half of his side’s 41-32 victory over Northampton Saints at Twickenham.

The former England scrum-half had already spent 10 minutes in the sin bin during the first half for making head contact with Courtney Lawes with a tackle, and Wilson admitted he feared the worse when Dickson - a former Harlequins player - appeared to reach for his pocket after Care pushed Ramm and went off his feet at the ruck.

The incident was then reviewed several times by Dickson and the television match official before Dickson then concluded that a penalty alone was significant punishment and Quins immediately replaced Care, who left the field appearing to smirk with relief.

“I thought the ball was out, I’m trying to get the ball,” said Care afterwards. “There was a little fracas after, that maybe helped me out.”

TNT Sport pundit Lawrence Dallaglio was convinced the act of foul play should have merited a second yellow card and a dismissal could have had a major impact on the result coming at the start of the final quarter when Quins led 26-20.

“It was a stonewall yellow card,” said Dallaglio, while his former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll added: “He (Dickson) went to his pocket and then saw it was Danny Care.”

Wilson admitted the Harlequins coaching team had prepared for a red card when the incident occurred and had been relieved at Dickson’s decision.

“Yes. If I’m honest,” said Wilson. “I’m not saying he deserved one. I’m just saying from you know, you’re at the hands of the referee. It was an incident that could have gone against Danny and us.

“We were planning immediately (that) if it was a yellow - worst case scenario, what are we going to do to get Porter on and get somebody off. But thank God it wasn’t that and we held on.”

Phil Dowson, Northampton’s director of rugby, refused to be drawn on the incident.

“Karl has had a good look at it, the TMO has had a good look at it, several times,” said Dowson. “They took plenty of time to look at it and if they thought it wasn’t a second yellow then it is not.”

Harlequins keep play-off hopes alive in ragged Twickenham try-fest

An entertaining contest featuring 10 tries and three yellow cards, with the victory for Harlequins keeping alive their hopes of securing a place in the Premiership play-offs while applying the brakes to a Northampton Saints side that appeared to be free-wheeling their way to the title. Yet ultimately one wonders what the two sides’ respective Champions Cup semi-final opponents next weekend, Toulouse and Leinster, made of it all?

The conclusion is likely to be more damning for the Saints, whose previously combative defence was picked apart too easily by a Harlequins side who had secured their four-try bonus point as early as the 46th minute.

Northampton’s vaunted attack also stuttered, failing to take advantage of three yellow cards to Quins players Danny Care, Louis Lynagh and Tyrone Green.

True, the contest could have come to a different conclusion had Care received a second yellow in the second half for a shove on the back of Saints wing James Ramm before killing the ball, when referee Karl Dickson initially appeared to reach to his pocket only to deem the incident only worthy of a penalty after review. Quins immediately substituted Care just to make sure and his replacement Will Porter had a match-winning impact, scoring two late tries.

Overall the contest felt too loose, and too error-ridden to serve as testing ground to prepare for the respective trips to Toulouse and Dublin. But Quins at least delivered a try-scoring template they believe will be critical to their hopes of causing an upset in France, while Alex Dombrandt delivered a powerhouse display that will not have gone unnoticed by England head coach Steve Borthwick.

“What you saw tonight was an intent to score tries,” said Danny Wilson, Harlequins head coach. There is no point trying to chip away with three, six and nine points against a side like Toulouse and a side like Northampton.”

Northampton still had opportunities to win the game, but ultimately were undone by a high number of handling errors and a lack of ruthlessness in their finishing. Phil Dowson’s side remain on course to finish at the top of the league table, but he knows that level of performance would not be giving any sleepless nights this week for Leinster.

“We are going to have to be considerably better,” said Dowson. “We weren’t quite at it defensively and it didn’t feel or look like us, and we have got to drill down to why that was from a coaching point of view and make sure we are a whole heap better next week.

Harlequins had made their intentions clear as early as the second minute when after a flowing attack up the left-hand side before Marcus Smith executed a cross-kick perfectly for Luke Northmore to score the first of two tries.

Saints responded with substance, Ollie Sleightholme finishing off a counter-attack after George Furbank had gathered a chip by Care, and Fin Smith and Alex Mitchell had moved the ball wide to Tom Litchfield to kick ahead to the line.

When Fin Smith slotted a penalty to extend the lead to five points, there was little sign of the riveting chaos that was to follow. Northmore’s second try brought Harlequins back into the lead and although Fin Smith restored Northampton’s lead with a second penalty after Lynagh had been shown a yellow card for deliberately knocking down a pass, Harlequins finished the half six points ahead after a try from close range by  Stephan Lewies.

Saints saw a try chalked off by Sam Graham when Alex Mitchell was adjudged to have narrowly knocked the ball on and it summed up their frustrations. Once Cadan Murley had scored from a pop-pass by Marcus Smith, Quins should have taken a commanding grip on the contest, but it was not that sort of afternoon.

Ramm brought Saints back within six points, before Litchfield’s second try put Saints briefly back in front before Porter’s double sealed the contest.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0, Northmore try; 5-5, Sleighthome try, 5-7, Smith con; 5-10 Smith pen; 10-10, Northmore try, 12-10, M Smith con; 12-13, Smith con; 17-13, Lewies try, 19-13, M Smith con; 24-13, Murley try, 26-13, M Smith con; 26-18, Ramm try, 26-20, Smith con; 26-25, Litchfield try, 26-27, Smith con; 31-27, Porter try; 36-27, Porter try; 38-27, Evans con; 38-33, Lawes try; 41-32, Evans pen;

Harlequins: T Green, L Lynagh, L Northmore, A Esterhuizen, C Murley (O Beard 66), M Smith (J Evans 72), D Care; F Baxter (J Marler 54), J Walker (S Riley 68), W Collier (S Kerrod 54), I Herbst, S Lewies (G Hammond 68), C Cunningham-South (W Trenholm 72), W Evans, A Dombrandt.

Northampton Saints: G Furbank, J Ramm, T Freeman, T Litchfield, O Sleightholme (F Dingwall 50); F Smith, A Mitchell, E Iyogun (T Haffar 62), S Matavesi (R Smith 62), T Davison (E Millar-Mills 62), T Mayanavanua (C Munga 62), T Lockett, C Lawes,  L Ludlam (A Scott-Young 62), S Graham (J Augustus 50)

Referee: K Dickson (RFU)

Attendance: 58,592

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