Jack Kenningham pushes England claims as nine-try Harlequins thrash insipid Stormers

Jason Gilmore did not offer up any grand proclamations. Harlequins had lost their last three games before this one, shipping a combined total of 149 points in the process. Even so, this represented a heartening response as the hosts sealed their passage through to the knockout rounds.

“The boys are working really hard, we just have to make sure that it’s a catalyst for us,” the Harlequins head coach said. “Win, lose or draw, we want to make sure we’re putting out performances that we’re proud of. We’ve changed up training a little bit and the rhythm we’re building with our attack is nice.

“Our defence was much better. The Stormers have a big pack. They’re a mauling team and they’ve been opening teams up all year. We stood in front of the fire.”

Kenningham was saluted as “outstanding” and there were more compliments for Friday, whose crisp service helped Smith. “He’s a great player and his ceiling is so high,” Gilmore added of Friday, a highly rated England age-group international who returned from knee surgery only at the end of November.

“You have to remember he’s coming off a knee reconstruction and he’s almost a newer version of DC [Danny Care], as a running nine who can take the heat off Smithy a little bit with that threat around the ruck. You’re only going to see him grow.”

Dobson picked five Springboks, including captain Damian Willemse, and had Oli Kebble of Scotland at loosehead prop. He defended his selection and is a firm believer that South African sides can continue to make these trips after joining European competition structures.

“We came over here determined to win,” Dobson said. “We brought a World Cup winner and had five Springboks in the team. If I came here with a junior team just trying to honour the fixture, there could be overt criticism. There’s nothing wrong with bringing a good Stormers team that has won in Munster and getting well beaten.

“We’re trying for this tournament, desperately. We wanted to get through this group unbeaten. You could say we should have brought Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], but [fly-half] Jurie [Matthee] has done really well for us in northern hemisphere conditions this season.

“I didn’t think we were trying to be disrespectful of the competition. We really wanted to host a last-16 game and maybe we still can.”

Harlequins themselves have qualified after thrashing Bayonne reserves and now dismissing a poor Stormers effort. To their credit, a four-try bonus point away to Leinster was also admirable. Now Harlequins head to La Rochelle, where they will swing the bat in the hope of hosting that knockout game at the Twickenham Stoop.

In recent weeks, you would have given them no chance. And they might yet be brought back to earth with a thump by Levani Botia and co. But with the Prem a lost cause, Harlequins can make the Champions Cup a haven.

Match details

Scoring sequence 5-0 Kenningham try, 7-0 Smith con, 12-0 Murley try, 17-0 Dombrandt try, 19-0 Smith con, 24-0 Cunningham-South try, 26-0 Smith con, 31-0 David try, 33-0 Smith con, 38-0 David try, 40-0 Smith con, 45-0 David try, 47-0 Smith con, 52-0 Carr try, 54-0 Smith con, 54-5 Khan try, 54-10 Maart try, 59-10 Evans try, 61-10 Smith con.

Harlequins T. Green (Carr 60); David, Northmore, Bradley, Murley; Smith, Friday (M. Green 63); Kerrod (H. Williams 49), Walker, Delgado, Petti (Turner 60), Treadwell, Cunningham-South, Kenningham (E. Williams 60), Dombrandt.
Replacements Hobson, Lawday, J. Evans.

Stormers Gelant (Matthee 66); Maart, Hartzenberg, Willemse (Swart 8, Willemse 19), Burger; Matthee, Duvenage (Mlaba 53); Kebble (Khan 53), Vokozela (Matongo 56), Porthen (Swart 61), Evans (Van Wyk 61), Van Heerden, L. Nel, Dixon, Theunissen.
Replacements: Ntubeni, Groves, Ndhlovu.

Referee Nika Amashukeli (Georgia).