Evans turns to celebrate after landing his winning drop-goal

Harlequins fly-half Nick Evans hailed his late drop-goal as the "ugliest" score of his life after it secured a 19-17 win over Stade Francais.

Quins looked set to lose their unbeaten record in the competition before Evans's effort deep into added time.

"That was probably the ugliest drop-goal I have hit in my life, but it doesn't matter how they go over. They all count." he said.

"It was an ugly game and we had to front up. But the boys are very happy."

Quins have enjoyed a good run of form recently and the New Zealander was delighted at securing back-to-back wins over the French side after last weekend's victory in Paris.

"It was awesome. The last two weeks have been right up there in the top five games of rugby I have played in my career," he added.

"It is a pleasure to be playing with such a close-knit group of guys."

Coach Dean Richards also praised his team's composure in the latter stages of the game where they set up victory with a final rally which went through 29 phases.

606: DEBATE Another fine performance directed by Dean Richards. Lot more to come from him and the team. I see them going from strength to strength B

"I thought the whole team showed a huge amount of patience. To not give away a penalty or turn over the ball in that final move shows how they have matured as a side. I am quite pleased with that," he said.

"Even if we had lost I would have been happy with the commitment shown by the players. It was a fantastic win but there were times when we didn't play as we said we wanted to play and nearly threw away a couple of opportunities.

"We will take everything from it we can because we have still got to learn from it.

"I thought (number eight) Nick Easter was outstanding but a lot of the guys were. (Prop) Mike Ross showed why we rate him far more than Ireland do. He scrummaged really well and the pack worked well as an eight."

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