'We just coughed the ball up': Chisholm frustrated at Harlequins loss

Ross Chisholm was left frustrated in the wake of Harlequins 45-22 loss to three-time champions Gloucester Hartpury.

The head coach saw his side well-beaten in the West Country by Kate Williams, Sisilia Tuipulotu, Kelsey Jones, Tatyana Heard, Maud Muir and Lucy Simpson’s tries.

Harlequins were able to get a bonus point thanks to the efforts of Ella Cromack, Lauren Torley, Liana Mikaele-Tu’u and Aoife Wafer’s efforts, and are fourth in the Premiership Women’s Rugby table heading into Round 12.

“Actually, I think the thing that cost us today, we gave the ball up 22 times – 22 turnovers,” Chisholm told TNT Sports. “Against a side like Gloucester, you give them that amount of field position they are going to punish you.

“That put us under serious amounts of pressure. So, that’s probably an area we need to go away and look at. I felt like the heart and desire was there, we just weren’t very accurate at large parts of the game today.”

For the contest, Dan Murphy and Gloucester Hartpury had rolled the dice. Their back three looked almost unrecognisable with Rachel Lund, Hannah Dallavalle and Nel Metcalfe in it.

Harlequins had their own squad rotation to deal with, which included a PWR debut for Zara Green off the bench.

Even so the overriding feeling of frustration for Harlequins’ head coach came from his team’s failure to capitalise. In each of their entries to the opponents 22m they scored a try. They just did not do that enough.

“I thought we did well in the first half,” Chisholm said. “Unfortunately we just coughed the ball up.

“I feel like we did put their back three under pressure but we didn’t capitalise on the opportunities we created. When we got in the 22m we were really strong.

“It’s that middle of the pitch zone where you’re giving teams good field position and possession, they kick to the corner and then defending mauls and scrums is tough. For me that was the story of the game.”