Quins beat league leaders Northampton at the death with brace to England star

Tom Lawday’s try with his final touch as a Harlequins player earned his club a 38-31 victory over leaders Northampton on the last day of the Gallagher Prem’s regular season.

It is a still a campaign Quins will want to put behind them swiftly, though, as results elsewhere meant they finished ninth and missed out on qualification for the Investec Champions Cup.

A much-changed Saints led four times at the Stoop before losing out at the death and they now have a home semi-final against East Midlands rivals Leicester to look forward to on Friday.

A searing breakaway involving Fraser Dingwall and James Ramm led to Northampton scoring the game’s first try after six minutes as young scrum-half Jonny Weimann nipped over after Ramm had been tackled just short.

It was Saints’ 100th try of the Prem season, but it was quickly cancelled out when a spell of pressure led to the ball being worked out to Marcus Smith, whose pass gave Alex Dombrandt an easy finish.

Smith’s conversion levelled matters at 7-7, but the visitors were back ahead after 17 minutes when a tapped penalty deep in Quins territory led to Weimann feeding JJ van der Mescht for the giant lock to crash over from a few metres.

The conversion attempt from Anthony Belleau slid wide, with Harlequins then drawing level with the final play of the first half when Smith got the ball out to Cameron Anderson, whose pass led to Jamie Benson going over on his final appearance for the club.

There was still no separating the sides early in the second half.

Northampton momentarily went in front for a third time when Josh Kemeny slipped through some slack defence following Weimann’s tapped penalty, but Quins equalised again within two minutes when Dombrandt charged into space before timing his pass to put Cassius Cleaves in the clear down the left.

The hosts hit the front for the first time after 59 minutes when the ball was worked towards the right, where Benson’s final pass led to Anderson stepping past George Hendy to score.

Their lead was only brief as Will Porter’s miscued clearance was gathered by Toby Thame and the replacement centre kicked ahead before gathering himself and grounding over the whitewash.

Northampton soon gleefully accepted another gift when Smith’s pass was intercepted by Weimann, who ran in unopposed from 40 metres to grab his second.

Dombrandt then made it a double for himself when he crashed over from close range, with Smith’s conversion setting up a big finish.

It arrived off the final play when Dombrandt got away down the right and passed to Cadan Murley, who rode James Pater’s attempted tackle before giving the departing Lawday his fairytale moment.