'A lot has been said... some of it unfortunate'

Alex Dombrandt hailed Harlequins’ resilience after the Gallagher Prem strugglers stunned play-off hopefuls Bristol 18-14 in Cardiff.

Billed as Bristol’s Big Day Out fixture, it fell flat on its face at the Principality Stadium, with Quins ending a run of six successive Prem defeats that had stretched back five months.

Quins went into the game a distant 26 points behind their opponents – but they ended it by claiming a first league away win since March last year,

“A lot has been said in the last few weeks, some of it unfortunate, but it will take more than that to break this group,” Quins captain Dombrandt told TNT Sports.

“We have a lot of respect for each other, and we work for each other.

“No one gave us a chance coming here, but I felt that during the break for the Six Nations we were able to go after a few things, and although it didn’t show in the result against Gloucester (Quins’ previous game), we showed glimpses of what we had worked on.

“We took it on today. We didn’t have much to prove to ourselves, but this should keep some people quiet for the next week or so.”

Tries from Dombrandt and wing Rodrigo Isgro proved enough to keep Bristol at bay in front of a 45,000 crowd, while fly-half Jarrod Evans kicked a penalty and full-back Jamie Benson converted Isgro’s score before landing a 79th-minute penalty.

Bristol were never at the races, despite an early Fitz Harding try and James Williams conversion, and they slipped seven points behind fourth-placed Exeter with just six regular season games remaining, claiming a losing bonus through Steven Luatua’s late score that saw Williams again add the extras.

For their part, Quins closed the gap on Gloucester to one point and raised hopes of a possible top-eight finish that would mean Investec Champions Cup qualification for next term.

Quins head coach Jason Gilmore said: “I am proud and happy for the boys. We have gone through a really tough period.

“There is still a lot of work to be done, but I was happy with the fight and guts we showed against a good Bristol team.

“We were disappointed in our Big Game (against Bristol in December that Quins, lost 14-40). We felt we let our supporters and the club down that day, and we wanted a bit of revenge.”

Bristol have now got it all to do in terms of the play-offs, with three of their last six matches being against fellow top-four challengers Northampton, Bath and Saracens.

And Bears defence coach Jordan Crane said: “The general feeling is frustration, with the event that has been on and what we showed.

“We had opportunities to score we didn’t take – the same as last week (against Leicester) – and it is very similar two weeks in a row.

“The fixes are there. We have got the right bodies in the building to fix it, we just need to do what we do better.”