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13th December 2014
08:31pm GMT

A major statement was made, on 31 minutes, when Leinster wheeled an attacking scrum from 5m out. Quins were shunted towards the posts and Heaslip picked and fed Boss for a simple try up the blindside and in the right-hand corner. Madigan missed the conversion but Swiel, almost immediately, put another penalty wide. 8-0 but not much to get excited about.
Madigan improved his kicking stats to 50% (two from four) just before the break to make it 11-0.
Matt O'Connor's men were fortunate not to concede a try early in the second half as Joe Marler was adjudged to have knocked on moments before Mike Brown touched down after a chip over the top. The scrum tide was beginning to shift, however, and Swiel chipped over a simple penalty soon after as Marler earned his team a penalty in the right direction.
Quins moved to within a point of Leinster after 57 minutes when the home side were sucked in by a Michael Hopper surge and quick ball was spun right by Danny Care. Darragh Fanning gambled by coming off his wing but did not time his tackle and there was, all of a sudden, a 3-on-0. Brown dotted down and Swiel converted for 11-10.
Conor O'Shea looked on approvingly from the Quins' coaching box as Swiel knocked over the go-ahead penalty, on 67 minutes, after Leinster were blown up for going offside. 11-13 and looking flat, Leinster need a big finalé.
Eoin Reddan, who had underperformed at The Stoop last week, provided it as he made two scything breaks in the space of 30 seconds. A reeling Quins conceded a penalty and Madigan knocked it over to make it 14-13. Harlequins fought to the death but perhaps too vigorously as Charlie Matthews was sin-binned, on 77 minutes, after an unseemly scuffle near his 10m line.
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