Six-try Harlequins too good for Jake White's Montpellier
Jake White could only watch as his Montpellier side were well beaten by Harlequins
©PA
After declaring his interest in succeeding Stuart Lancaster as England coach, Jake White watched as his Montpellier side were beaten 41-18 by Harlequins in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
White says he does not want to go through the "rigmarole" of a lengthy application process only to be overlooked, as he was in 2008 and 2012.
As the 2015-16 European rugby campaign got underway - later than usual due to the World Cup - Harlequins outclassed their visitors with Luke Wallace, Nick Easter, Jack Clifford, Danny Care, Ollie Lindsay-Hague and Chris Robshaw all scoring tries.
However, it was Montpellier who raced into an early lead, taking advantage of Harlequins indiscipline to go 9-0 up through three Benoit Paillaugue penalties.
Quins got on the scoreboard as Nick Evans landed a kick of his own and after Paillaugue bisected the posts once more, the home side ended the first half strongly.
Flanker Wallace crossed after a series of drives and after Montpellier's Georgian front row Mikheil Nariashvili was sin-binned for illegally taking down a maul, Easter crossed. The conversion from Evans put Harlequins 15-12 to the good at the break.
The second half saw Robshaw introduced to the action and another drive set up Clifford to score early on. That score was converted and after Paillaugue landed his fifth kick, Care finished off a maul to seal the bonus point.7
Paillaugue completed Montpellier's scoring with another penalty although it was followed by the try of the game, scored by Lindsay-Hague after excellent work from Marland Yarde, Care and Mike Brown made Sitaleki Timani pay heavily for knocking on.
And there was still time for Robshaw to dot down to cap a dominant display for Harlequins against an inept Montpellier with the result mirroring the opening game of last year's competition which also saw an English side (Gloucester) comfortably beat a travelling French side (Brive).
.jpg "Andre Esterhuizen scored the opening try for Harlequins")
