Harlequins were worthy winners in their hard-fought 20-7 victory over Newcastle Falcons according to Quins’ Paul Gustard.

Tries from Alex Dombrandt and Francis Saili, along with 10-points from the boot of fly-half Marcus Smith was enough to hand Quins their third win of the league campaign and pushes them in to fifth in the league.

On a night of difficult conditions the game never hit any great heights but Gustard said it was a job well done.

“Tonight was about us. We can look ourselves in the mirror and be pretty happy with the performance,” said Gustard.

Frustrated

A match laden by errors, Gustard praised his side’s first half performance even if the scoreboard wasn’t set alight.

“I was happy in the first half just frustrated. Frustrated we didn’t score more points.

“We were the dominant team. We played rugby, we were courageous. We kept the ball in slippery wet conditions and the first half was a good performance.

“We couldn’t break them down, partly because of error, partly because of our inaccuracy and partly because they wouldn’t roll away from the breakdown.”

READ: Report - Harlequins 20-7 Newcastle Falcons

Quins defence held a Newcastle side who were on a five-game unbeaten run in all competitions for over an hour before Andrew Davidson scored what turned out to be a consolation for the visitors.

“We grinded out victory. The game lost momentum and accuracy second half. They came back in to the game through our error, and it was frustrating in the last 15.

“I thought our defence was excellent up until the last 15, when we got fatigued.”

Aiming High

Gustard will be pleased with the after an indifferent start to his reign at The Stoop. There are talks of top four aims circling in South-West London and a victory when not playing their best victory is surely a good sign.

“We’ve shown improvement but we’re not perfect. I enjoyed the fact we won, and we needed that win tonight.”

Quins travel to Worcester next Friday hoping for more of the same.