Aviva Premiership: Harlequins made to wait until closing stages to claim win at London Welsh

Harlequins: Were made to work for their win over the Premiership's bottom side

Harlequins left it late but returned home from the Kassam Stadium with all five points after a 24-13 win over London Welsh.

It took Harlequins until the stroke of half-time to claim the lead from a spirited Exiles side in search of their first Aviva Premiership win of the season.

First-half tries from Marland Yarde and Karl Dickson gave Harlequins the lead, and second-half efforts from replacements Kyle Sinckler and Tom Williams meant last year’s semi-finalists were able to leave with a full complement of league points.

The opening quarter belonged to London Welsh, but the home side was unable to punish Harlequins as chances kept being squandered.

A kick ahead was chased down by Nick Scott, but he was stopped from grounding the ball by a covering tackle from Yarde.

Shortly thereafter they were on the attack again, but a cross-field kick from Piri Weepu was not collected by Seb Stegmann, despite the absence of any defenders.

The score stayed at 0-0 going into the second quarter, but Welsh were able to break the deadlock when Will Robinson ghosted through the Harlequins defence before offloading to Scott, who put Paul Rowley through to score under the poles, giving full-back Robinson an easy conversion for a 7-0 lead.

Harlequins hit back four minutes later when they turned down kickable penalties in favour of a try, and their faith was rewarded when scrum-half Dickson caught the Welsh defence off guard as he snuck over for a score which Tim Swiel was unable to convert.

Welsh extended their lead when Robinson claimed three points from the kicking tee, but it was Quins who ended the half in the lead when Matt Hopper breached the home defence before passing to Yarde who drew his side level with a try. Swiel made no mistake as he gave his side a 12-10 lead at the break.

Welsh once again dominated proceedings in the second half but could not reclaim the lead as Robinson pushed a penalty attempt wide. Harlequins then scored against the run of play when Yarde took advantage of poor defence to give Sinckler an easy run-in for a try.

Swiel was once again unable to convert, so when Robinson added a penalty in the 59th minute the hosts were still in the game at 17-13.

Sadly for Welsh the introduction of Danny Care brought about a try from Williams as the winger took the game and bonus point away from the Exiles with his side's fourth try of the game.