O’Shea breathes sigh of relief as late Smith score earns Quins win
HARLEQUINS director of rugby Conor O’Shea revealed his relief after Sam Smith touched down with three minutes remaining to seal an 11-10 win over London Wasps yesterday.
A first-half penalty-try had Wasps in control at The Stoop, but Ben Botica slotted a penalty 10 minutes after the break, setting it up for Smith to cross over late on with the winning try.
But O’Shea conceded four points was perhaps more than Quins deserved.
“We’re miles better than we were here,” he said. “The guys in there have to be comfortable and happy that we won because its four points but you cannot play like that week in, week out and we won’t and we’ve got away with it.
“You look back at a 22-game season and there are days like this where you look back at it and say ‘how did we get away with that?’ but you are where you are.”
On Saturday, London Irish produced one of the shocks of the season, beating Saracens 22-13 at Allianz Park, also denying the league leaders a bonus point.
The defeat sent Saracens off top spot, but director of rugby Mark McCall was not interested in pointing fingers, instead looking forward to Friday’s trip to Sale Sharks.
“We’re not looking to portion any blame,” he said. “The penalty count in the second half was disappointing for us.
“We weren’t at our best and London Irish were difficult to play against but we’ll move on to the next game.”
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