Sale 37-31 Harlequins: Raffi Quirke’s ‘Hollywood brilliance’ keeps hosts in touch with Premiership play-offs as visitors fall short of heroic comeback

England scrum-half Raffi Quirke and his evolving brand of ‘Hollywood brilliance’ helped Sale fend off a dangerous challenge from the Harlequins and remain in the hunt for a place in the Premier League play-offs.

The 22-year-old has endured two years of injury turmoil, which disrupted his early career momentum, but he has already proven his qualities as a match-winner at Test level and did the same for his club on Sunday. After leading 25-10 just after half-time in a win-or-bust game, the Sharks had seen their lead shrink to a point where Quirke burst off the bench and made his mark.

In 2021 he was in the right place at the right time to score a match-winning try against South Africa at Twickenham and this time he was well placed to benefit from a telling intervention from fellow substitute Tom O’Flaherty.

The wing charged at Andre Esterhuizen’s effort from the restart – after Oscar Beard’s try had made it 25-24 – and Quirke chased through to touch down, before being mobbed.

He continued to make his presence felt in his 50th appearance for Sale, despite boxing kicks flying short and long in the wind – regaining one himself and seeing O’Flaherty grab another, ahead of Arron Reed’s try 16 minutes before time. which ultimately turned out to be decisive.

Quirke chased down a Harlequins restart attempt to score for Verkoop in the death and rescue win

Quirke brought characteristic energy to proceedings as he faced the man he will look to replace in the England squad in the long term: Quins veteran Danny Care.

After seeing his side hold on to win and climb to sixth in the Premiership table by slim margins, Alex Sanderson, the victorious director of rugby, said: ‘Raffi looked sharp when he came on – catching his own box kicks ! He probably won’t force anything this season.

‘He wants to be an all-round, complete scrum-half and not just have the Hollywood brilliance. He’s in better mental shape than I’ve seen since I’ve been here. He’s banging on the door (for a starting spot).”

Sale led 15-0 in as many minutes at the start of this disjointed match, with tries from Ben Curry and Sam Dugdale.

Sale were 15-0 ahead when Sam Dugdale scored the home side’s second try

Louis Lynagh gave Harlequins their first try of the day to thwart Sale’s opening display of dominance

Those influential flankers played a key role in this crucial victory, not least in the way they stopped rampaging England blind Chandler Cunningham-South from firing over the winning line as he did at will in Bordeaux eight days earlier. “He was shark bait this week,” Sanderson said. “We saw the momentum he gave them last week.”

Being Quins, they didn’t know when they were being beaten and came back strongly in the second half, with enough conviction to claim two precious bonus points and consolidate fifth place.

“We’ve been saying all season that it’s about bonus points, so it’s great to get two from home,” said head coach Danny Wilson. ‘But the frustration is that we scored 31 points away from home and still lost.’

Next Sunday, Sale will be on Tyneside to take on Newcastle, who suffered a brutal 85-point humiliation at Bristol yesterday. Asked about his side’s play-off prospects, Sanderson added: ‘We have to win all our games. If we keep getting five points, we will be fine.’