there's Still Life In The Game - Evans

Quins outscored their opponents four tries to one, including a crucial late score by Will Greenwood, but allowed Eric Elwood to keep the tie alive with four penalties.

So Evans conceded that his side still have plenty to do in Galway in two weeks' time.

He said: 'Overall the result was pretty much par for the course. If you asked me before for a prediction, although I probably would not have answered, I thought it would be ten points either way. It means there's still life in the game when we go to Galway.

'In the first stage of the game the penalty count was going against us and although we had most of the play the referee's attitude added to the mix and we struggled to make our advantage count on the scoreboard.

'But that's what European competition is all about. You play against different opposition, different players and under different officials and you have to cope with that during the game.

'In the second half we stopped competing in the tackle area in the same way and that meant the referee went a little easier on us.

'In the 20 or so minutes that Connacht were getting hold of the ball we were still defending well and competing and to be fair they didn't do much with it.

'Our back three worked well as a unit, Will Greenwood was able to get his hands on the ball a lot more than he has been able to do for a long while and we were pleased to finish the game with the try count advantage that we did.

'It would have been nice to score again in the last 10 minutes but it's very rare that you go out and smash teams off the park in competitions of this standard.'

Meanwhile opposite number Michael Bradley, Connacht coach, admitted his side were happy to settle for a nine-point deficit given Harlequins' dominance of the first leg.

He said: 'If you concede four tries and are outplayed to a large extent in the lineout and stay within nine points of a side then you have to be happy enough.

'The Stoop is a difficult place to go to and it's no surprise to us that it proved so. But the match is very much set up for us to go to Connacht and get the home crowd behind us at the Sportsground and beat them by ten points.'