Harlequins' delight at their 31-13 victory over Bristol was tempered by some bad news concerning injured fly-half Nick Evans.
Bristol boss slams his side after slipping to heavy defeat on their travels
Harlequins' delight at their 31-13 victory over Bristol was tempered by some bad news concerning injured fly-half Nick Evans.
The former New Zealand number 10 suffered a medial ligament knee injury during his debut in the opening weekend win over Saracens.
Evans sat out the Bristol clash on Saturday and director of rugby Dean Richards confirmed the big name signing will be out for at least a month.
"Nick's probably out for another four or five weeks, possibly even longer, but I'm quite relaxed about it," said Richards.
Struggled
Waisea Luveniyali took over from the sidelined Evans but landed just three conversions from nine attempts, missing two conversions and four penalties.
However, Richards insisted he's not too concerned, adding; "I think he just had an off-day. He's normally a far better kicker than that.
"Nick's injury has given him an opportunity - and although his kicking wasn't all it could have been today, with ball in hand he's a fantastic footballer."
Despite Fijian Luveniyali's bad day with the boot Quins still eased to a bonus-point five-try success at the Twickenham Stoop.
Richards feels there is still further improvement to come from his side, even though they currently sit top of the table two weeks in.
"We didn't quite play in the right areas of the field, and some of the decision-making at times wasn't good," he conceded.
"But it's something we'll look at and we'll learn from it. That's the beauty about the youngsters. They are just so willing to learn.
"Some of the guys will be a little bit disappointed with their performance today, just from the intensity point of view, but we'll take the five points. We're happy with that."
Hugely disappointing
Bristol boss Richard Hill felt his side had been "hugely disappointing" as they suffered a second straight defeat at the start of the new campaign.
David Lemi did grab a try for the visitors in the dying seconds which Adrian Jarvis converted. The former Quins fly-half also kicked two penalties.
"It's hugely disappointing," Hill admitted.
"A huge amount of work went into preparing this side, and we didn't see much product. We caused our own downfall in many respects.
"The first half was pretty dismal, and it's a shame people had to pay money to watch it.
"We made a whole host of errors all the way though. It isn't easy to explain when you watch that."
