\n<\/p>\n
Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio 5 Live:<\/b><\/p>\n
“I think it was a game of two halves. At half-time everyone was pretty measured, pretty calm – very frustrated I’d say from a playing point of view.<\/p>\n
“And we knew the things we needed to rectify, they were fairly obvious, and I was very pleased with the way the players came out and did that.<\/p>\n
“The penalty count [in the first half] is simply a symptom of being under pressure, so when you’re defending for long periods of time you’re going to give a lot of penalties away.<\/p>\n
“We were under pressure because we couldn’t keep hold of the ball, the breakdown was a mess, we were giving penalties away at set-piece.<\/p>\n
“Second half – much better flow, much better breakdown, much better intent to go forward.<\/p>\n
“[It was] a fast game, and we love that with Quins and Saints.”<\/p>\n
On the injury to Alex Coles:<\/b> “He had a rib injury that was particularly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully, that won’t be too long but the medics will have a good look at him and see how he gets on.”<\/p>\n
Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson said:<\/b><\/p>\n
“First half we were frustrated at what we were handing back to them.<\/p>\n
“We’d score a try and then make a mistake on the kick-off or the exit and give them field position, they’re too good a side to give that kind of opportunity.<\/p>\n
“We felt we should have been a bit clearer at half-time and then second half, that 20-minute period we just got blown away. Yellow card, just defence, defence, defence and it dragged and drained the energy out of us.<\/p>\n
“Proud of the effort, proud that we scored the try to come out of it with two points.<\/p>\n
“But it’s a game I think we’ll look back on and think we could well have got more out of it than what we did.” <\/p>\n
On playing Smith at full-back:<\/b> “He’s class isn’t he? Wherever you play him he’s a fantastic rugby player. <\/p>\n
“It was needs must tonight and he did a great job.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n