Luger prevents Irish from taking points

Dan Luger sprang to Harlequins' rescue in sensational style yesterday, saving his team in the 10th minute of injury time with the most critical charge-down of the Premiership season. The England wing dashed more than 30 yards off his line, then leapt goalkeeper-fashion to block the conversion with which Barry Everitt threatened to push the London club deeper into the relegation mire from the last kick of the match. Luger's rapid response ensured that Quins doubled their reward from one point to two in clambering off the bottom and shoving Leeds there instead. Quins had noticed that Everitt, in the process of blasting every Premiership points record after reaching the first goalkicking century of the season, tended to take rather a long time over the approach to his conversions.

Quins' acting coach Mark Evans said: 'Before we played them in the Cup a few weeks back we mentioned that he does take a little while to get his kicks away. I'm glad someone remembered.' Jason Leonard, for one, certainly did. He it was who pointed Luger in the right direction, calling him over from the left wing to the right for the most direct route to Everitt.

Michael Horak's try in the ninth minute of injury time pulled the Irish level after substitute stand-off David Slemen and full back Ben Gollings had nudged Quins ahead with a hat-trick of second-half drop goals.