Harlequins 20 Gloucester 14: Full-back Brown shows his England potential

The full-back latched on to Danny Care’s chip to touch down in the 73rd minute and a victory in Connacht next Friday should be enough to secure a quarter-final place.

Brown was one of four Harlequins players called into the England squad last week and director of rugby Conor O’Shea believes he is putting the pressure on Ben Foden for the full-back jersey.

“It is great for England that you have guys playing at that level,” said O’Shea.

“Browny is playing absolutely outstanding rugby. He has a knack of scoring those important tries.

“It has forced Ben Foden to raise his level. He is playing outstanding rugby. If you have competition you have people pushing each other.

“Hopefully, Browny gets a look in at some stage during the Six Nations and plays. He deserves to get up to that level.”

Gloucester had proved a tough nut to crack up until Brown’s try, with the visitors cancelling out Matt Hopper’s opening try with an effort from James Simpson-Daniel.

Harlequins trailed 14-13 when captain Chris Robshaw three times declined to take the points as Gloucester were penalised at successive five-metre scrums.

On the seventh set piece, Harlequins’ opportunity looked to have gone when the ball was kicked out the side of the scrum and Care was penalised for offside when he picked it up to score. But Harlequins conjured up one last opportunity and Brown’s try brought them back from the brink of elimination.

“That is living and learning,” O’Shea said.

“This time last year we would probably have lost that game.

“We are enjoying learning what it is like every week to play at this level, with a heck of a lot on the line every time you go out there.

“Teams only get used to that playing matches when you have everything to lose. We go into the last round of matches with an opportunity to go through.

“We are in with a chance of going through.”

Gloucester are now out of the Heineken Cup running but they can still affect the outcome of the group, with Toulouse due at Kingsholm next Friday.

Boss Bryan Redpath said: “We are going into an international period and this will be the last chance for some players to play and there is no better chance than bringing Toulouse to Kingsholm.”