"I am absolutely made up about that result," said Quins boss Mark Evans, after seeing his side do something very un-Quins esque; by winning a dogfight against a side more renowned for slugging it out toe-to-toe with the opposition.

"We are so short of our best team it is ludicrous at the moment. You look at the guys who weren't on the pitch today. Leonard, Wood, Greenwood, Bell, Satala, Winters, Sanderson, Duncombe (effectively) - that's what I find so pleasing."

"We've beaten a pretty good side in difficult circumstances and we've done it on all the intangibles like heart and spirit, desire and all that type of stuff."

Not the sort of qualities that NEC Harlequins were usually associated with. However, they toughed it out on a rugby field in the cold and wet of a British winter.

"Well I've only been here two and a half years and I like to think that as part of the re-invention, or whatever you want to call it of a club, that we are inculcating a different type of attitude and that takes time. But I think that today things didn't go our way in terms of injuries and cards, and I thought that we really dogged it out and all credit to them."

Evans is loathe to single out individuals in what was truly a team performance, but the ability of Tony Diprose, a player who goes back a long way with Evans, was central to the theme.

"His involvement in the game is so huge. He is not as explosive as some number eights, but if you look at the number of times that he is in the game, his involvement level is so high, both sides of the ball."

"He is in my opinion still one of the premier number eights in England, and I see some people in representative teams in his position but frankly they are not in the same class."

"It was nice to get Burkey (Paul Burke) back obviously. We have missed him in probably two of the games we've lost in the last six weeks and we probably would have won if he had been on the park."

"I thought Billy Davison for 65 minutes was just marvellous and when Alex Codling took two or three absolutely crucial steals, and a lot of credit has got to go to John Kingston and him and to Roy Winters who is injured at the moment, but they work so hard at it."

"In tight games, the hours and hours they spend on it, it days like today when it pays off. We got a try from one and we took two on our own line - it is invaluable."