Harlequins Director of Rugby Conor O'Shea

Heineken Cup: Connacht 9 Harlequins 8

Harlequins suffered a shock 9-8 defeat at the hands of Connacht in a stormy Galway last night placing major doubts on their Heineken Cup quarter-final hopes.

Quins missed an opportunity which would have been enough to see their progression to the quarters as pool six leaders Toulouse were beaten by Gloucester.

In a low scoring game, Connacht’s Niall O’Connor kicked all nine of his team’s points.

With an eight-minute Sam Smith try, which started with a long pass from fly half Nick Evans, it looked as though Harlequins’ dream start was going to be followed by another trademark performance.

Sustained pressure from he hosts towards the end of the first half resulted in Quins conceding a penalty which allowed O’Connor the chance to increase Connacht’s lead before half time but the periods ended 9-5 as the kick was scuffed.

Just four points down, it was almost inconceivable that Quins would not stage a comeback in the second half.

But it never came; a 60-minute Evans penalty was all that troubled the scoreboard in the half as the Kiwi was handed the chance to snatch victory with a missed second penalty kick.

As Quins desperately pushed on, the clock ticked down on Connacht’s first win since 23rd September after 14 consecutive losses.

The resulting pitch invasion highlighted just how much the victory meant to the faithful home fans.

Harlequins: Brown, Monye, Hopper, Turner-Hall, Smith, Evans, Care, Marler, Brooker, Johnston, Vallejos, Robson, Fa’asavalu, Robshaw, Easter

Replacements: Casson, Lambert, Gray, Kohn, Wallace, Fairbrother, Bolt, Clegg

Connacht: Duffy, Vainikolo, Tonetti, Fa’afili, O’Halloran, O’Connor, O’Donohoe, Wilkinson, Flavin, Loughney, Swift, McCarthy, Muldoon, Ofisa, Naoupu

Replacements: Reynecke, Rogers, Buckley Kearney, McKeown, Moore, Nikora, Jarvis