Harlequins back? Or is this latest outrageous twist in the story of their inconsistency a case of same old, same old? First, it needs to be acknowledged that this was a comprehensive dismantling of a side who had not lost a game this season. This was hardly the Stormers’ first team, but an unbeaten squad is an unbeaten squad. God knows, they are beaten now.
The notion that Harlequins are one of the Premiership’s whipping boys was made to look absurd as they strutted the turf of the Stoop with supreme confidence and aplomb. Try after try followed, a hat-trick for Nick David with consecutive tries either side of half-time. But the star performers were legion here. Their eighth try (of nine) on the hour opened up a 54‑0 lead. How far away seemed the past few weeks, in which they have conceded nigh-on 150 points in three Premiership matches.
“It’s been a tough few weeks,” Alex Dombrandt, the Quins captain, said. “But I’m really proud of how the boys have stuck together, how we’ve had those honest conversations. Everyone at the club wants to push forward. So, to put out a performance like that, I’m really proud.”
And yet, for the neutral, that niggle about the Stormers’ team sheet will remain. It would be unfair to complain about South Africans sending over weakened teams at this pivotal point in the pool stages of an elite competition. Such practices are hardly unheard of in the Champions Cup and its previous iterations. The French, anyone? But the sheer distances teams have to travel now is an enduring flaw in this latest format. No wonder teams from both sides of the equator pick and choose their moments.
The Stormers may be top – and unbeaten – of the United Rugby Championship, but the team they sent to London for this contained 12 changes from the one that dispatched the mighty La Rochelle in the previous round before Christmas. Not that Quins gave any impression they were studying the opposition’s team sheet. They burst into the match as if they had redemption on their mind. First try after six minutes, bonus point wrapped up in the 26th, scoring at more than a point a minute by the half-hour mark – 33-0 up at the break.
Where to begin describing the tries, where the star performers? Jack Kenningham scored the game’s first, and the club stalwart was superb in all departments. As were his mates in the back row, Dombrandt, now back and firing, and Chandler Cunningham‑South, both try-scorers, of Quins’ third and fourth respectively.
Cadan Murley, another constant threat, had scored the second, with characteristic acrobatics in the corner, but his fellow winger David took over from there. His first, on the half‑hour, was a thing of beauty. A great line from Luke Northmore, who looks fantastic again in the centre, precipitated interplay between David, Murley and Tyrone Green (another back from injury), which set up the former in the corner. Marcus Smith, assured but relatively understated amid the carnival, landed his fourth of five first‑half conversions from the touchline.
David’s second in the third quarter was a length-of-the-field study in brilliance, from Cunningham‑South’s turnover yards from their line to his shuddering carry a few seconds later, Dombrandt’s support play and the interplay between David and Northmore for the former to finish off. When David scored his hat‑trick try on the hour, the Stoop was euphoric, all the more so when Zach Carr scored with his first touch two minutes later.
Northampton were brought back down to earth after they suffered a 50-28 loss away to Champions Cup holders, Bordeaux, in a repeat of last season's final. Saints had already secured a place in the round of 16 after two wins from two in the competition and despite a double by Henry Pollock, they lost for the first time in Europe this season.
An irresistible Bordeaux side crossed over eight times in a scintillating display, but Northampton were able to leave with a bonus point after Danilo Fischetti touched down with two minutes left.
A ding-dong battle in a repeat of the 2025 showpiece appeared on the cards when Pollock (pictured) instantly replied in the 10th minute to the first try by Bordeaux wing Salesi Rayasi.
Ill-discipline proved costly for Saints as a raft of first-half sin-bins meant it was 24-7 to Bordeaux at the interval and Rayasi completed his treble two minutes after the restart.
Cameron Woki joined Rayasi in scoring a hat-trick after he bundled over in the 50th minute, but the visitors showed character with England star Pollock able to add to a Tommy Freeman score late on before Fischetti clinched a losing bonus point to leave Northampton third in Pool 4.
Munster slipped to a second Champions Cup defeat after going down 27-25 at Toulon in Pool 2.
Jack Crowley put Munster in front with two penalties, but they were reduced to 14 men in the 36th minute when Tadhg Beirne was sent to the sin-bin. Toulon responded just before the break as Marius Domon crossed before converting his own effort to give them a one-point advantage at half-time.
Toulon were straight out of the blocks in the second half when Ben White touched down in the 43rd minute and Domon converted, but Munster responded three minutes later when a quick switch towards the right allowed Calvin Nash to ground in the corner and Crowley added the extras.
A chaotic start to the half continued as Gaël Dréan scored for Toulon in the 49th minute with a try under the posts and Domon converted, while Munster were frustrated further six minutes later when Alex Nankivell was shown a yellow card.
Esteban Abadie was then sent to the sin-bin for Toulon, but they extended their lead with a Domon penalty. Jack O’Donoghue touched down for Munster after edging over the line, but Crowley missed the resulting conversion attempt.
Charles Ollivon saw yellow for the French side, allowing the visitors to capitalise as Tom Farrell went over and Crowley’s conversion sent them ahead, but Domon’s penalty with five minutes to play proved enough for Toulon. PA Media
Imad Khan and Dylan Maart replied with tries at last for the visitors, before Jarrod Evans’s try afforded Smith the chance to convert Quins into the 60s for the second time running in this competition.
“Humiliating,” the Stormers’ head coach, John Dobson, said. “Quins said after the Sale loss that they were going to concentrate on Europe, which they certainly showed today. When they click like that they are really good. Obviously there are some guys in Cape Town, but we thought we’d brought a team to compete. We didn’t even do that.”
Quins are through to the last 16. Whether they can win a home tie will depend on their trip to La Rochelle next Sunday. That will be, how to put this, somewhat harder an assignment than this. But one step at a time.
