Leeds 27-30 Harlequins

Leeds (13) 27
Tries: Welding, Myall, Denton Cons: Ford 3 Pen: Ford 2
Harlequins (24) 30
Tries: Robshaw 2, Lowe Conversions: Evans 3 Pens: Evans 3

The Leeds defence gets to grips with Harlequins centre Gonzalo Tiesi

Bottom side Leeds narrowly failed to claim their first home Premiership win of the season as Harlequins survived a second-half fightback at Headingley.

Both sides scored an early try on Friday night, Richard Welding crossing for Leeds and Chris Robshaw for Quins.

Quins then added two converted tries, through George Lowe and Robshaw, to lead 24-13 at the break.

Leeds hit back with converted tries from Kearnan Myall and Tom Denton but Quins held on to climb to sixth.

After a woeful start to the season, Quins have lost only one of their last six Premiership outings to encourage hopes that they can challenge for the play-offs again, but for Leeds the spectre of relegation looms.

Since their momentous win at Wasps, Leeds have lost three Premiership matches in succession and a losing bonus point was little consolation for their efforts.

Leeds head coach Neil Back:

"Our first-half performance, conceding three soft tries, killed us.

"We turned out a really good display in the second half but ultimately the experience of our opposition's number nine and 10 (Danny Care and Nick Evans) controlled things in the latter stages of that game and at times we were dull and lacked composure.

"I am disappointed and so are the squad."

Harlequins head coach John Kingston:
"There were times when we played really well and threatened to get away from them.

"The challenge at half-time was to get away and win by 40 or 50 points.

"That sounds silly when you win 30-27, but we weren't good enough with the way we handled things in that second half at times."

Leeds Carnegie: Hinton; Welding, Rabeni, Barrow, Blackett; Ford, Gomarsall; Hardy, Ma'asi, Gomez, Lund, Wentzel, Myall, Clark, Oakley.

Replacements: Hepworth for Barrow (29), Mathie for Gomarsall (54), MacDonald for Hardy (51), Nilsen for Ma'asi (51), McGee for Gomez (66), Denton for Oakley (51).

Not Used: Pendlebury, Strange.

Harlequins: T Williams; Strettle, Lowe, Tiesi, Mordt; N Evans, Care; Jones, Fuga, Andress, Percival, Robson, Guest, Robshaw, Easter.

Replacements: Brooker for Fuga (66), Lambert for Andress (58), Stevenson for Percival (66), Skinner for Guest (58).

Not Used: Croall, Dickson, Clegg, Drauniniu.

Sin Bin: Care (30).

Att: 5,090

Ref: Sean Davey (RFU).