With their London rivals leading 40-13 just before the hour mark, the quartered men looked down and out. But tries from Tom Guest, Nick Evans and a brace from Mike Brown in the last 15 minutes brought the score to within two points in the closing minutes.

With three minutes left on the clock Evans, on his 100^th appearance for Harlequins, slotted the match winning penalty from 44 metres out.

The first half story went to London Wasps' wingers Tom Varndell and Christian Wade as they dominated the show. Both wingers' deadly finishing allowed the home side to lead 20-0 within the first quarter of an hour.

With Wasps dominating the early possession, Harlequins kept them confined to their own half. After numerous phases of play, Joe Simpson passed the ball wide. Varndell looped off his right wing to collect the ball creating a mis-match in defence and the winger passed to Wade to score. Nick Robinson successfully converted and added two further penalties inside the first 10 minutes, giving Wasps and early 13-0 lead.

Wasps then stung again with an identical move. With Varndell again looping around, he offloaded to Wade. However, despite crossing the line, Wade passed to Varndell to score. Robinson's conversion gave Wasps a 20-0 lead after 13 minutes.

Harlequins opened their scoring on 17 minutes thanks to a try from Tom Williams. When Wasps conceded a penalty in midfield, Danny Care took a quick kick tap penalty. The scrum-half offloaded to Chris Robshaw who then quickly passed to the rushing Williams who ran in untouched to score. With Evans' conversion, Harlequins had seven points to their name.

Robinson added a further penalty on 20 minutes and was lining up a conversion moments later following Wade's second try. With Quins in possession, Wasps turned the ball over finding Wade with a one on one with George Lowe, the Wasps winger danced around Lowe on the wing and scored again in the right corner. Robinson's conversion, this time, missed.

Evans added two penalties inside the final 10 minutes of the half for Harlequins and Harlequins trailed 28-13 at the break.

Wasps secured a bonus point try seven minutes into the second half with a try from Marco Wentzel. With Harlequins in possession just inside the Wasps half, the home side turned the ball over from a knock-on. Varndell picked up possession and raced down the wing. The winger offloaded to the second-row to score. Robinson's conversion missed.

Harlequins did have some pressure midway through the second half, but handling errors and some poor decision making resulted in Wasps clearing their lines.

Wasps added their fifth try just after the hour mark. Fly-half Robinson's chip kick found space. With the back three scrambling to tackle him, this left the right wing un-manned and after numerous offloads, Tim Payne scored. Robinson added the touchline conversion.

It was here that Harlequins began their momentous come back. Two tries in quick succession thanks to Tom Guest and Mike Brown go the ball rolling. Guest's try was simple, resulting from a charge down on Robinson, but the second was a flash of what Harlequins fans have become used to of late and was a sign of things to come.

When Evans collected a clearance kick from Hugo Southwell and danced around the home side's defence, numerous offloads followed, Rob Buchanan stormed five metres short which created room on the blindside. The ball was played by Care to Brown to score Harlequins' third try. Evans conversion attempt missed.

Evans was however able to have another shot on goal and scored following Harlequins' try bonus point score from Brown. With Quins working possession inside the Wasps half a beautifully weighted cross filed kick from Evans found the hands of Brown who scored. Evans' conversion reduced the gap to eight points at 40-32.

With the Harlequins fans roaring the side on in the final 10 minutes, another score followed from Evans. It was a move that began within Quins 22, allowing the forwards and backs to combine to race up field. When the ball was stretched wide, Evans slipped the defence, and despite being taken high, scored.

With the deficit at two points it took a Harlequins penalty for Evans to seal the win and despite Wasps attacking in the dying seconds, Quins held on to win.