Harlequins crush London Scottish

London Scottish huffed and puffed in their friendly at near-rivals Harlequins, but in the end they could not contend with the Premiership firepower that Scottish full-back Jim Thompson later described as “absolutely brutal” to behold as they lost 40-15.

Fly-half Lee Millar opened the scoring for London Scottish, slotting a penalty. Harlequins responded by running at every opportunity, returning loose kicks with full-back Charlie Walker and Danny Care, who himself appeared to loath passing to anyone other than Jordan Turner-Hall who carried relentlessly, attempting to tire the visiting pack. This refusal to kick or play with any tactical nous was entertaining, but it led to neither try-line being bothered for 25 minutes as balls went down and ruckers fell off their feet. London Scottish made the breakthrough with a pushover try from Lewis Calder, only for Tom Guest to peg one back.

And when the Scottish dam burst, Quins took full advantage. In mere moments they had pushed over for a score with prop Darryl Marfo, helped Tom Williams to stroll over and then 
unleashed captain Luke Wallace who clattered through three pedestrian defenders who had watched his 15m run-up in slackjawed reverence.

Harlequins were juggling balls and pulling name after name into the fray, first with former England winger Paul Sackey, then with Junior World Cup-winning captain Jack Clifford and new prop Paul Doran-Jones.

In the end Quins notched two more tries while Scottish could only muster an extra from Miles Mantella and a 
yellow card from Calder.