Quins started the match playing up the considerable slope and into the teeth of the gale, but it was not long before strong Bristol pressure began to push the visitors into their own twenty-two.  It took a fracas between front-row forwards to give Quins a penalty and some relief. 

First evidence of Quins’ attitude and determination was the sight of Danny Care taking a quick tap penalty on his own twenty-two and breaking upfield at pace.  Tom Guest was in support and when he continued the run he found Charlie Amesbury on the left wing.  The winger taking the pass brushed off the attempted tackle of Arscott and touched down for the first try of the match after six minutes.  Jarvis’ conversion attempt failed, but Quins led 0 - 5.

From the restart Bristol had a scrum, some 30 metres in front of the posts, and from a penalty awarded to Bristol at an offence at that set piece, Ed Barnes kicked the penalty to put the home side on the score sheet, 3 - 5.

Quins were resisting the strong forward pressure and while the scrum had problems, the line-out provided ball even on Bristol’s throw.  Play was mostly in Quins’ half of the field as Bristol, aided by the slope and wind, pressed hard, picking and driving strongly round the fringes and edging nearer the Quins’ line. That pressure eventually produced an overlap on the right which allowed Tom Arscott to score in the corner, Again the conversion failed but Bristol led 8 - 5 after twenty-three minutes.

As Quins tried to press up the hill towards the Bristol twenty-two they gained a penalty at a scrum and Jarvis kick leveled  the scores at 8 - 8.  That is how it remained until half-time, although Bristol were not helped by two penalty misses by Barnes from about 30 metres which would have given the home side a cushion against the wind to take into the second half. 

For the second half Hala’ufia replaced Robshaw who had taken a blow to the face late in the first half.  Bristol began the half attacking strongly and Quins , perhaps wrongly, tried to play with ball in hand rather than use the wind to assist a kicking game for territory.  Then a yellow card for Jarvis for persistent offside produced the first of a series of penalties and five metre line-outs forBristol.  Three times they kicked to the corner and won the line-out, but the maul was successfully defended each time until the referee, Mr Rose, lost patience with Quins and went under the posts for the penalty try.  Barnes added the points to give the home side a 15 - 8 lead.

Injuries began to occur and Evans was a blood replacement for Robson and shortly after, with Jarvis still in the sin-bin, Malone was a blood replacement for Amesbury nicely in time to take a penalty kick inside the Bristol twenty-two to reduce the deficit after thirteen minutes.

Both blood replacements reversed and Jarvis returned to the field as the last quarter began.  It was Jarvis’ neat cross-kick to the left corner for Amesbury that started the attack.  He was stopped but recycled the ball and Care fed the ball to Mike Brown who broke the defensive tackles and stretched out to score.  Jarvis converted and Quins led 15 - 18.  That lead might have increased a few minutes later but Jarvis missed with a long penalty attempt. That was almost Jarvis last involvement as he was replaced by Malone and Fuga was replaced by Botha.

Quins were soon back on the attack and it was another break down the left wing by Amesbury who passed inside to Brown. The full-back was stopped just a yard short of the line but the forwards, following up, took the recycled ball and took Botha over the line with the ball and even though Malone missed the conversion Quins seemed to be destined to win with the lead increased to 15 - 23.

Mass replacements for Bristol now used all of their bench in a desperate attempt to turn the result.  They began to pressure the staunch Quins’ defence for most of the following ten minutes.  Then an interception by George Robson of a pass from Matt Salter on the centre line saw the lock outpace the chasing David Lemi to score the fourth Quins’ try in the corner. The missed conversion was irrelevant as the match ended soon after with a fine win for Quins by 15 - 28. 

This was a very good performance by a team that is improving every outing.  Mike Brown is back to his attacking best, Amesbury has clearly benefitted from game time in ND1 and Care was clearly an England scrum-half in waiting leaving the pedestrian Shaun Perry far behind him.  The pack played well and Robson gets better at every line-out.  The result took Harlequins to 4^th place in the Premiership table. 

At the Press Conference following the game Dean Richards was his usual dead pan self.  He was, however clearly very satisfied with the afternoon and said so in terms.   

“If you'd have asked me on Saturday if I'd be happy with five points I'd have said I'd be delighted," he said. "Full credit to the young boys again - they played very, very well. I don't think we appreciated enough where to play the game for the first 10 minutes of the second half. A silly turnover - which gave Bristol that little bit of advantage with a series of penalties, a penalty try and a sin-binning - could have cost us dear. But we kept our heads. The beauty is that the youngsters are maturing with every game, and they're learning with every game as well.” 

He went on, “But there's a long way to go and there are some very difficult games to come. The average age of this team was 23 or 24, but we're playing a style of rugby which suits the youngsters. They will make mistakes but the coaches are giving them license and are backing them all the way.

"We lost badly to Leicester during the winter and that defeat gave us a bit of a jolt. But there is no automatic right to get into this side. We had to do without Nick Easter today, but Tom Guest for example is playing out of his skin at the moment."            

Bristol L Arscott; T Arscott, Brew (Barden, 73), Cox, Lemi; Barnes (Strange, 73), Perry (Thomas, 73); Clarke (Crompton, 62), Linklater (Regan, 62), Hobson, Winters, Budgett (Hohneck, 62), Salter (capt), Blowers (Grieve, 73), Ward-Smith.
Tries: T Arscott, Penalty try. Conversion: Barnes. Penalty: Barnes.

Harlequins Brown; Keogh, Barry, Turner-Hall, Amesbury; Jarvis (Malone, 65), Care; Jones, Fuga (Botha, 65), Ross, Cohn, Robson, Robshaw (Hala'Ufia, h-t), Skinner (capt), Guest (Evans, 74).
Sin-bin: Jarvis 47
Tries: Amesbury, Brown, Botha, Robson. Conversion: Jarvis. Penalties: Jarvis, Malone.

Referee: D Rose (Birmingham).

Attendance: 9,764

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