Quins fell to a 25-20 defeat to London rivals Saracens in a game they’ll think they should have won.

An expectant sell-out crowd at The Stoop roared out Mike Brown in his 300th appearance for Quins and they were not left short of entertainment, namely by an incredible bit of skill from centre Joe Marchant to touch down.

A Billy Vunipola try in the last quarter was the difference between the sides in a gamer that saw Quins lead for the majority of proceedings.

Quality off the bench showed as the away side brought on some of their big hitters on the hour and it proved to be the difference.

Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell traded two kicks a piece in a tight opening twenty minutes.

The home side lost US international Paul Lasike after ten minutes after a getting his head caught on the wrong side of a tackle. This will not have been in the script as the match was being shown on US television.

The men in red went close but some fine try line defending from the home side resulted in Billy Vunipola knocking on when attempting to touch down.

The opening try came in the 35th minute courtesy of the evergreen Care who used the experience gained in his previous 249 games for Quins to intercept from a line-out to scamper home from the half way to the delight of the crowd.

A Farrell penalty either side of the half time whistle brought the scores to 13-12 before one of the most unscripted tries you’ll ever see.

Smith skewed a penalty from the 22, it held up in the wind, and the only person alive to it was Joe Marchant who acrobatically caught and grounded the ball to give Quins seven points instead of the three Smith should’ve slotted. A try for the highlight reel.

The try prompted Sarries into changes and it told as they dominated the final twenty. Schalk Burger, Richard Wigglesworth, Sean Maitland and Maro Itoje allIt was no surprise that Vunipola went over in the corner after a valiant defensive effort from the home defence. Two more Farrell penalties took the score to 20-25 and they saw the game out.

Quins will feel that Saracens were there for the taking but they let this win slip away.