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Marler kick mars Quins victory

Marler, playing in his first match for Harlequins since his suspension by World Rugby for the "gypsy boy" comment he made to Wales prop Samson Lee, is likely to face a ban after kicking an opponent.

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The incident, in the 26th minute of Friday's encounter, was not spotted by the officials – but was certainly the main talking point in the aftermath of Harlequins' convincing semifinal triumph.

European competition officials have 48 hours from the end of the match to bring a citing against Marler, and any ban could leave him a doubt for England's June tour to Australia.

"Any test for a citing has to pass the red card test, and this does not pass that test," said Harlequins boss Conor O'Shea.

"Should he do it? No. Is it a red card? No. It's disappointing to have to talk about it because I thought his scrummaging was excellent.

"But he is under the microscope.

"Things happen, we never condone it but if that is a red card there's a heck of a lot of things that happen on the pitch that are worse."

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Jamie Roberts, Nick Evans and George Lowe all crossed to secure their place in the Final, although they were given a tough task at the Twickenham Stoop by a gutsy Grenoble side who threatened to pull off a shock.

Roberts said he has his sights set on a second Challenge Cup winners' medal, after picking up the Man of the Match award.Marler kick mars Quins victory

The Wales and British & Irish Lions centre struck with a typical blockbusting run after 11 minutes to not only break through the Top 14 club' defence, but also severely dent their hopes of reaching a first final.

"We went at them from minute one and we could see that they were gone after 50 or 60 minutes. It was cup rugby and there was a great attitude from the lads," said Roberts, a winner with Cardiff Blues in Marseille in 2010.

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"We still have a bit of work to do on our attitude to risk in the game. Sometimes we try to play a bit too much in our own half, which we won't be able to do in the final. We still have a lot to learn, but hopefully we are improving and building towards a big end to the season

"It wasn't a game for quick ball and we had to kick the ball quite a bit, which we did well 80 per cent of the time. Credit to Grenoble, the weather took away the width they like to put into their game and we probably adapted to the weather a bit better than they did."

While Roberts is looking forward to a second European final, Harlequins will be chasing a fourth title against either Montpellier or Newport Gwent Dragons in Lyon on Friday, 13 May. They will also be hoping to give departing director of rugby Conor O'Shea the perfect send-off.

For Grenoble, meanwhile, it is back to the drawing board – and to five further games in the Top 14 – before their season ends. Their target was to get out of their pool in Europe this season and head coach Bernard Jackman was pleased to have seen his side reach the semi-finals for the first time.

"We are very disappointed that we didn't play to our full potential, but we give massive credit to Harlequins. They put the squeeze on us and played in the right areas," said Jackman.

"They dominated us in the set piece and that made it very hard to play. It meant we tried to play out of our own half and we made a lot of handling areas.

"It is the first time for us in the knock-out stage of a European competition and we have just got to learn and be better next year – we weren't as accurate as we would have liked. We've got five games left to go in the Top 14 and we've just got to get on, keep learning and get better."

Quins will face either Montpellier or Newport Gwent Dragons in France on Friday, May 13.

Harlequins had won three of their previous four appearances in Challenge Cup semifinals and made a perfect start as they chased a 10th successive win on home soil in the tournament.

A powerful scrum from Joe Marler and Adam Jones handed Botica an early penalty that he easily swept over. Then the flyhalf started the move that ended with Heineken Man of the Match Roberts storming over for the first try in the 12th minute.

Botica's long pass released Tim Visser on the left wing and from a ruck 10 metres out the Quins skipper Danny Care picked out Roberts on a trademark burst from midfield. He brushed aside two defenders, crossed the line and ended the move with a swallow dive in celebration.

Botica converted and swiftly cancelled out Jonathan Wisniewski's kick with a second penalty of his own. It all added to a terrible start for Grenoble, who also lost both prop Dayna Edwards and centre Nigel Hunt to injuries inside 10 minutes.

But the French club, in their first European semi-final, recovered to cause Quins plenty of problems with their tough tackling. Wisniewski kicked a second penalty to cut the lead to 13-6 at half-time and make it anyone's game after the break.

Evans received a rapturous reception when he came on as a second half replacement after recovering from a broken leg in February. But that was nothing compared to the cheer less than three minutes later when the former All Black chip kicked behind the Grenoble defence and won the race to reach his own kick to score Quins' second try.

Evans converted and added a penalty on 67 minutes after Grenoble had come within inches of the Quins try line.

That kick finally ended Grenoble's effort and Lowe latched onto a clever kick by Danny Care to put the game beyond reach 10 minutes from time.

The scorers:

For Harlequins:

Tries: Roberts, Evans, Lowe

Cons: Botica, Evans 2

Pens: Botica 2, Evans

For Grenoble:

Pens: Wisniewski 2

Teams:

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 George Lowe, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Ben Botica, 9 Danny Care (captain), 8 Nick Easter, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Chris Robshaw, 5 Sam Twomey, 4 James Horwill, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler.

Replacements: 16 Dave Ward, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Jack Clifford, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Nick Evans, 23 Ross Chisholm.

Grenoble: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Xavier Mignot, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Nigel Hunt, 11 Lucas Dupont, 10 Jonathan Wisniewski, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Steven Setephano, 7 Fabien Alexandre, 6 Mahamadou Diaby, 5 James Percival, 4 Ben Hand, 3 Dayna Edwards, 2 Arnaud Héguy, 1 Sona Taumalolo.

Replacements: 16 Loick Jammes, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Walter Desmaison, 19 Mathias Marie, 20 Henry Vanderglas, 21 James Hart, 22 Fabien Gengenbacher, 23 Fabrice Estebanez.

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Marius Mitrea (Italy), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)

TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)

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