This London derby under lights had an edge to it.
A quick Quins line-out caught TF napping, and Aoife Wafer had an opening try.
At this stage the hosts were feeling the edge of Charlie Gayther’s whistle; at least the pack were in charge at the scrum.
The first hometown cheer came when Vicky Lafln caught Ellie Kildunne in possession from behind.
Claire Gallagher collected a long line-out throw cleanly, the home pack hammered at the line, and Georgia Ponsonby had her sixth try of the campaign (7-5).
I could use that phrase “hammered at the line” so often, you might think the game was dominated by the forwards, but there was plenty of action out behind.
A long break by Carys Cox led to a try by the tireless Abi Burton and the first of a forest of cards – this one to Abby Fleming.
Ella Cromack missed three early pots at goal but her try closed the gap to two points.
Half-time: 12-10
The second half was so see-saw and dramatic that tempers frayed.
Wafer repeated her early success by finding her way over again. Many previous attempts had been chopped down just in time (12-15).
Even without Meg Jones and Lisa Thomson in the centre, TF had moments of great interpassing brilliance. Jade Konkel suffered a yellow as her pack came under pressure, and Rosie Inman found her way over. The hosts looked even safer when Maia Roos added a bonus-point try (26-15).
From this point the game ran against the hosts.
A clever diagonal by Lucy Packer put Quins on the front foot. Then two sudden yellows, to Inman and Haidee Head, just on, altered the shape of the game. It’s quite a while since I last reported a 13 v 15 game.
Wafer proved what an invaluable signing she is for Quins by registering her third try (26-20). The two extra players (later one) gave Quins the upper hand.
They seemed to have exploited it when Ellie Kildunne found space out wide to cross. But the AR had spotted a loss of contact in the way down. Defence rewarded!
It was left to Quins’ other big signing, Alex Callender, to force the issue in the 79th minute (26-25).
All now depended on Claudia Pena’s conversion. Crucially the drive that led to this score had crabbed right, closer to the posts. The kick sailed over and Trailfinders’ hearts sank.
Result: Trailfinders 26 Harlequins 27
Player of the Match: Aoife Wafer
Teams
Trailfinders: 15 INMAN 14 WHITE 13 UREN 12 COX 11 LAFLIN 10 C. GALLAGHER 9 BRADLEY 1 LEATHERMAN 2 PONSONBY 3 MONTIEL 4 ROOS 5 BORLAND 6 MALCOLM 7 ZACKARY (captain) 8 BURTON
16 BLANCO 17 META 18 TUFFNAIL 19 E. TAYLOR 20 HEAD 21 NORMAN-BELL 22 COOKSEY 23 BOATMAN
Quins: 15 KILDUNNE 14 TORLEY 13 PENA 12 PARRY 11 AUCKEN 10 CROMACK 9 L. PACKER 1 SPURRIER 2 PHILLIPS 3 HANLON 4 McINTOSH 5 FLEMING 6 WAFER 7 CALLENDER 8 KONKEL (captain)
16 MEULLER 17 TURANI 18 DELGADO 19 PAGE 20 SVOBODA 21 SWORDS 22 POWELL 23 WILCOCK
Afterthoughts
This a Name Game, Friday Night under Lights
Quins had their pride to conserve.
Trailfinders had their aspirations to confirm.
Should it have taken Quins so much huff and puff to scrape home by a point? No.
Are Trailfinders making a habit of letting winnable games slip? Yes.
Against TF’s many absentees, Quins have had to say an early goodbye to Liana Mikaele-Tu’u for personal reasons. We wish her all the best.
The match was another great tribute to the PWR.
