53 points ahead after winning the away leg 73-20, last weekend should have been Harlem Globetrotters stuff, and after scoring a try in the first minute the crowd thought that it might well have been.

"Today wasn't good, obviously," said Quins head coach Mark Evans, in a remarkably jovial mood after his troops were made to look anything but crowd pleasers after a desperate battle.

"Games like this are very difficult," Evans ventured. "We were 53 points ahead before we started, and I deliberately didn't rest anybody apart from Codling, who probably could have played if he had to, and Will Greenwood."

"I could have rested quite a few to be honest, and then Dave Slemen got a knock on Thursday so he couldn't play, but we had 11 or 12 starters of those who were fit and we didn't really play."

"But it is difficult; I have some sympathy with the players, although not much. When you are that far ahead, however much you go on about being focussed and professional and all the rest of it, if you don't start well the first thing that goes is your defence and our defence was desperate all day."

"It's been really good lately, yet it started badly and carried on, and you know from then that it is mental, and we weren't quite there. But fair play to Caerphilly, they played much better this week than they did last, and we didn't play anywhere near as well and hence the final score."

Nonetheless, despite the disappointing nature of the game, Evans could at least hang his hat on a crowd figure that was higher than the last time that Quins hosted a Welsh club.

"It was a disappointing, flat sort of day, yet I take some heart we had as many people here today as we had for a Heineken Cup game last year. We had more people here than we used to get for league games three seasons ago, and I'm just disappointed that we didn't play better for them."

"But we got over 4,000 people into the ground that was in effect a dead game and I've got to be encouraged by that."

Quins fans can at least look forward to a cracking second round tie in December when Stade Francais come to town (7th December 2002) in a game that has already caught the attention of the media and the public - but not summer signing Andre Vos, who will be illegible for any European challenge until the semi-final stage.

"It is a huge game. Stade Francais - great side, tremendous European record, beaten Heineken Cup finalist two seasons ago, semi-finalist the year before - looking forward to it. It's great, but it is not until December. It will be a nice one to look forward to in the dark winter nights."