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London Irish director of rugby Nick Kennedy has tipped Blair Cowan for a Scotland recall after the flanker starred in the club's 39-29 Aviva Premiership win over Harlequins at Twickenham. Cowan last played for Scotland in February 2016 but was key in defence and attack for Irish, who earned a bonus point with tries from Topsy Ojo, Tommy Bell, Ofisa Treviranus and Brendan McKibbin. Harlequins threatened a late comeback as Marland Yarde, Danny Care and Charlie Walker crossed following Joe Marchant's first-half score but two sin bins proved costly. Demetri Catrakilis and Mike Brown both spent 10 minutes on the sidelines as Harlequins were punished for their ill-discipline and McKibbin went over in the final moments to seal the win. "He [Cowan] was brilliant in attack and defence, he's one Scotland should be having a close look at," Kennedy said. "Blair made 14 tackles, but the average for him was 18 or 20 last year -- for people who haven't seen him for a year it's like 'wow, look at that'. For us that's what he does every week. "Not many coaches will select from that league [the championship] though, but just because you go down, your team has had a bad year, doesn't make you a bad player. "He was fantastic all last season and coming up he'll be in newspapers now and on TV more so it's easier to watch him and to get on the Scottish coaches' radar." Kennedy was impressed with the way his side stepped up following last season's promotion. He added: "It was similar to our performances in the Championship, we were very physical and we showed a lot of desire; it was pleasing to get the result. "I thought we made some big errors that really cost us and, whether we had won or lost this, it was a great game for us in terms of learning, moving forward and getting better." Full-back Tommy Bell kicked 24 points for Irish, including five penalties, as Harlequins' ill-discipline was punished at every opportunity. And director of rugby John Kingston accepted that their penalty count, in addition to the two yellow cards, cost his side in the London double header. "The discipline cost us and all the time you're pushing water up a hill really, there was fantastic effort and endeavour from the players to work their way through it," he said. "I'm proud of them to that extent, which may seem odd when you're disappointed to lose like that but we have to understand how to control our discipline in those situations. "It was an unbelievably commendable that they worked their way through that situation [the second yellow] to leave ourselves three points down with two minutes to go. "But the damage had been done, you can't afford to play that long with a player down."
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