Fightbacks from Quins cannot stop Bristol spree

Bristol 48 Harlequins 41

Rugby is rapidly becoming a game of two unequal halves. Not that Harlequins were complaining. When Paul Burke's second penalty went over in the 11th minute of added time in the second half it secured a second, priceless bonus point.

At that point the referee, Tony Spreadbury, brought the curtain down on the 11-try spectacular. True the spills outnumbered the thrills, but for the 5,000 crowd it was exciting and entertaining.

Peter Thorburn, the Bristol head coach, said: "Being a mean bastard I am not happy that we gave away two points. But hey, we are rocketing up the table." And they are.

The five points they picked up yesterday saw Bristol climb up the Premiership from 11th to seventh place, and however crass things became at times, some of their half-a-dozen tries were absolute gems. So were Quins' touchdowns for that matter.

No one can fault the spirit of the Londoners. Emotionally drained following the funeral of Nick Duncombe last week, they have also had problems with injuries to a number of players, including three senior props, and have had to help some new faces in other positions to settle in.

They took the field with jerseys that all bore Duncombe's name on the back and there was no No 9 jersey – retired until the end of the season. There was also a reminder of their late scrum-half under their sponsors' logo, the legend ND9 having been printed on, although that is to stay for the foreseeable future.

There was also a minute's silence which served as a sad reminder of the tragedy, so the fact that they twice staged fierce fightbacks, the first at 24-3 down, the second at a parlous 41-17, is testament to their collective willpower and their utter professionalism. It will help cushion the fact that they have not won away from home for almost two years.

For Bristol the heroes were their fly-half Felipe Contepomi, who kicked a total of 18 points, and the centre Daryl Gibson, who celebrated his 28th birthday with two excellent second-half tries which enabled Bristol to get back on course after the home side had conceded a bizarre score to Will Greenwood. Twenty seconds into the second half, Greenwood followed up his chargedown of a clearance kick and tamely touched down.

When Tony Diprose and Ben Gollings added tries later on Quins were buzzing, but Agustin Pichot, who had opened the scoring with a try inside three minutes, looked to have wrapped it all up in the fifth minute of injury time with his second try.

But Quins were not finished. Nathan Williams, who had been present with Duncombe when he died in Lanzarote, scored a try two minutes later, then, after a Burke drop-goal attempt hit an upright came that late penalty.

Bristol: Tries Pichot 2, Nelson, Brown, Gibson 2; Conversions Contepomi 3; Penalties Contepomi 4. Harlequins: Tries Luger, Greenwood, Diprose, Gollings, N Williams; Conversions Burke 5; Penalties Burke 2.

Bristol: J Williams; D Rees, A Higgins (L Best, 53), D Gibson, P Christophers; F Contepomi, A Pichot; A Sheridan (P Johnstone, 76), S Nelson, D Crompton, G Archer (capt), A Brown, M Salter (R Oakley, 70), R Beattie, M Lipman.

Harlequins: N Williams; D Luger, W Greenwood, M Deane, B Gollings; P Burke, W Fulton; P Cardinali (C Jones, 57), T Fuga, J Dawson, J Evans (B Davison, 43), A Codling, A Tiatia (S Miall, 80+6), A Vos (capt), L Sherriff (T Diprose, 47).

Referee: A Spreadbury (Warmley).