Weakened Quins back in the hunt

Paul Sykes kicked six goals as Quins' injury-hit squad bounced back from last week's shock loss to bottom club Salford.

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McDermott said: "We eked out the victory, and at times it didn't look pretty, but I don't really care.We had four of our most senior players and best players out this week, and so the effort the guys on the pitch gave me was outstanding."

Try scorer Matt Gafa did have McDermott singing his praises. The coach said: "He's a winger who is playing in the forwards and played the full 80 minutes, and he's turned in a really effective performance out there today. That's something I've got to get more of out of him as well as the other fringe players in the squad."

The win kept Harlequins in fifth position and on course for their second consecutive play-off season.

McDermott said: "We've nine games left but we're not looking forward to the end of the season, we're looking to next week and getting 17 guys out on the pitch who will punch above their weight and put their bodies on the line. That's what we've done this week, and if we keep on doing that then we should be fine for the end of the season."

The game was played in horrendous conditions at the Twickenham Stoop, and the quality of the play reflect that in the pouring rain and thick mud.

The match was littered with mistakes, but Harlequins played the better in the first half.

Hull took a 2-0 lead through a Paul Cooke penalty after six minutes.

However, this simply stirred Quins into life, and Mike Worrincy crashed over from five yards for his first try of the season.

This briefly stirred Hull into life, and James Webster sent Ryan Tandy over from 10 yards to level the scores. For the next 10 minutes the game became end-to-end, with Tyrone Smith and Mark Lennon trading tries to make the scoreline 12-12.

The Quins' more astute back play allowed them to take control either side of half-time. Gafa sent Henry Paul through the Hull defence and his inside pass found Chad Randall for the best try of the game just before half-time.

The teams turned round with Quins six points to the good and this was soon extended to eight when Sykes landed a penalty.

As the conditions deteriorated, so did the quality of the rugby, and a series of Quins mistakes enabled Hull KR to gain a foothold in the game.

When Chris Chester ran under the posts with 20 minutes to go there were just two points in it. However, this was as close as Rovers were to get as Gafa responded within three minutes, breezing through the Hull KR defence to score.

The game was almost over but Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook ran over from 30 yards late on to seal the win and give the scoreline a somewhat lop-sided look. Hull KR will be looking anxiously over their shoulders with Salford in a position to leapfrog them should they win their game in hand.

Rovers coach Justin Morgan was less than happy after seeing his side slip to another defeat, saying: "I'm very disappointed.There were way too many errors out there and every time we made an error they scored. There's no point being down about the result.We came down here and had good preparation but we didn't execute it as well as we should have down.

"We didn't do enough to win today and we've got nine games to go now. We probably need to win four or five of them to be safe, and I'm still confident we can do that.

"But we need to play better than we did today, starting with the derby game next week. If we play better and win then the tide turns and we gain a load of confidence from it.But we need to make sure that the tide turns quickly and we can get the job done.

"I think it was a mistake-ridden game and I think Harlequins will also be upset at the error count. They capitalised on our mistakes and we didn't when they made an error — and that was the big difference."