Before the Leeds defeat, head coach and Chief Executive Mark Evans stressed the importance of the remaining games they had before the mini-break for European fixtures as they could shape the clubs season, and after another defeat at home last week the club can ill-afford yet another slip-up this time around.

"It was another home game that we lost and we should have won," said back row forward Tony Diprose in the wake of Quins latest loss against Leeds.

"We had a one point lead going into the last five minutes against Gloucester and lost, and gone into the Leeds game with five minutes to go level and lost that, so we are very frustrated."

"I think the guys really worked hard last week and were full of commitment with everyone throwing themselves around on the field. Maybe we lacked a bit of precision in what we were doing."

"We did make a few errors and unfortunately let Leeds win the game in the end, but the only way out of this run is to just keep working hard and get our precision right."

Diprose and Quins face a London Irish side that have only just got out of a losing streak themselves, after defeating previously unbeaten Saracens last week to stop a six match losing streak that started after they won the Powergen Cup back in April - their first trophy in the clubs history.

"We needed that win and I hope that we are back in the groove," said former Quins lock Ryan Strudwick now captaining the Irish just a few miles up the A316 at Sunbury.

"We played well against Saracens, and it has lifted our confidence quite a bit which we needed. Quins is always a tough game, we never have an easy game against them, and I expect nothing less this weekend."

"We've seen a few of their games and they are not playing bad rugby. They've lost two games at home in the last minutes of the game, so they are not playing that badly."

"They are right up there with the other teams, and it was the same for us, you need a lucky break and you will win one sooner or later, but hopefully it won't be against us," continued the South African born forward, who might still have been at the Stoop had Andy Keast not joined Dick Best's Irish revolution.

Best's switch to Quins local rivals coincided with a dramatic turn of fortunes for the Exiles, who have lost only one of the last ten league and cup meetings between the two sides. However, Quins can take comfort from the fact that they have never lost their opening four league fixtures before and are due a change of luck.

"If any team has an advantage in playing at the Stoop it is us, because we've been there before and we've got a lot of support locally as well," said Strudwick, who will be packing down at number eight after former Quins legend Chris Sheasby took a knock on his knee last week.

"But it is not going to be easy. They are fighting like we were last week to get a win and they are going to come out firing and we just have to hope that we can match that."

Quins, of course, will be hoping that they finally do fire and finally grab their first win of the season, as Diprose looks ahead to his battle with Strudwick up front.

"We've got to go and have a look at ourselves. We can't afford to lose home games like we did last season because it puts us under a little bit of pressure, and we need that first win because until we get that the pressure is going to be on us and the confidence is going to suffer."