Quins boss tears into side after worst league loss in over 20 years

Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore described his side’s performance as “totally unacceptable” after seeing them slump to their worst league defeat since 2000 as Gloucester inflicted a 48-0 thrashing on them at Kingsholm.

Harlequins, without the likes of England internationals, Marcus Smith and Alex Dombrant, were totally outplayed in all aspects of the Gallagher Prem game and never threatened to open their account.

Gloucester scored eight tries with Ben Loader, Jac Morgan, Will Trenholm, Charlie Atkinson, Seb Atkinson, Will Joseph, Caolan Engefield and George Barton all on the try-scoresheet with Barton converting four.

Had the victors not taken off their leading players in the final quarter, which finished scoreless, then the defeat would have been even heavier.

Gilmore said: “The performance was totally unacceptable and you are not going to win a game with a 21-5 penalty count against you.

“We fed the referee, which meant we struggled for possession, and they were able to get easy field position and were able to launch 20 line-outs in the red zone to our five.

“At half-time we felt we could still do something but conceding two tries in the first four minutes after the interval took the wind out of our sails.

“That put the result beyond doubt and we spun out of control afterwards as we tried to chase the game.”

Gloucester’s opening to the season has been impressive. Last weekend they put out a statement of their intent with a convincing 45-24 win at Exeter, with the Devonians showing their mettle in their follow-up fixture – a narrow 40-34 loss at Bath.

In truth, Gloucester’s display was not as good as last week’s as the opposition on the day were so poor and Quins’ embarrassment would have been even greater had the hosts possessed the same accuracy as at Sandy Park.

However, head coach George Skivington was upbeat and said: “I was expecting a good performance but I wasn’t expecting a nilling, which is very hard to do in the Prem.

“Nilling a team is outstanding and shows great character. We have worked hard to be quicker off the line in defence and what particularly pleased me was how we raced back at the end to keep our line intact.

“I’m pretty pleased at how it went but we could have done a lot of things better and it’s testament to the group that they are not satisfied.

“At half-time we said we were in a good spot but needed to take a few more opportunities and I thought we were more accurate with our strikes in the second half.”