Harlequins 40-22 Wakefield

Harlequins recorded their first victory in 12 games as they beat Wakefield Wildcats 40-22, with Luke Gale scoring an impressive 16 points.

Wakefield, who are still to record two consecutive wins this season, remain second from bottom in the table as Quins won their first game since March 11 at St Helens.

Quins started the better and made their early pressure pay. Wakefield gave away an early penalty and the resulting play culminated in Luke Gale putting the Quins 6-0 up through a try and conversion.

Harlequins’ early dominance continued when they doubled their lead through Chris Bailey and another Gale conversion. A mix up between two Wakefield players gave possession back to Quins and after a great pass from Gale, Bailey went over under the posts.

Wakefield’s first real attack resulted in Hickey flattening Luke Dorn but minutes later Harlequins launched a quick break, and Dorn showed no after effects, receiving the ball from a good offload by Gale to further extend Quins’ lead. Gale added to his points haul with the conversion to lead 18-0.

Things showed no sign of improving for Wakefield as Harlequins’ Lee Mitchell set up Tony Clubb to get his first try of the day and Gale’s conversion accuracy continued, making it 24-0.

Dale Morton gave the Wildcats a glimmer of hope with a try just before half-time. Following decent build up work by Jeremy Smith, Morten crossed the line.

Unfortunately Gareth Moore couldn’t reduce the deficit any further as his conversion drifted just wide, and the Quins led 24-4 at the break.

Wakefield started the second half brightly but another error contributed to Harlequins scoring a try.

A cheap penalty was given away by Julien Rinaldi and Chad Randall’s quick hands set up Chris Melling to score. Gale missed his first conversion of the day but Quins led 28-4.

Wakefield’s day got worse after 57 minutes as Jeremy Smith was sin binned for dissent. Rinaldi looked like he would score a try however good defending by Quins prevented the try. Smith was unhappy and went over to the referee but was subsequently yellow carded, and the Wildcats were down to 12.

Minutes later, Luke Dorn dropped a high kick and Rinaldi, who was second’s earlier face down on the turf injured, dropped on the ball to score the try. Moore made amends from his earlier miss to convert, reducing the score to 28-10.

Wakefield’s joy was short lived as Harlequins put together their best move of the game. Two great tackles from Motu Tony and Paul Johnson stopped O’Callaghan and Bailey from scoring for Quins but they could do nothing to stop Chad Randall leaping from the dummy half position to touch down and Gale converted.

O’Callaghan managed to get himself on the scoreboard, scoring a try as a result of another penalty given away by Wakefield. A great conversion by Gale made it 40-10.

There was some late consolation for Wakefield when Jarrad Hickey showed his strength to power through Quins’ defence to get over the line and Moore added his second conversion of the day.

Then on the hooter, a Paul Johnson try and Moore conversion made the score a bit more respectable for Wakefield as it finished 40-22.

Harlequins: Dorn, Melling, Clubb, O’Callaghan, Calderwood, Gale, Briggs, Wilkes, Randall, Ward, Burnett, Mitchell, Bailey. SUBS: Krasniqi, Ambler, Ellis, Thomas.

Wakefield: Tony, Morton, Murphy, George, Griffin, Moore, Smith, Korkidas, Davey, Amor, Mariano, Dean, Johnson. SUBS: Henderson, Rinaldi, Higgins, Hickey.

Attendance: 2875