Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston believes his side’s bonus-point triumph over Sale can end their patchy run in the Aviva Premiership. 

Quins returned to winning ways at The Stoop with 42-26 triumph over Steve Diamond’s men on Friday night, as they avoided a third defeat on the bounce.  

Tim Visser, Joe Marler and Joe Marchant all crossed for Quins in a pulsating first-half period which saw the hosts cross the whitewash three times in 12 minutes.

Sparked by Danny Care’s man-of-the-match performance, a Marland Yarde try snubbed out any hope of a Sale comeback, after the visitors had led a brief resurgence through Sam James and Ross Harrison.

And Quins’ third win of the season was enough to satisfy Kingston, who cited the importance of bagging maximum points after a catalogue of missed opportunities in previous losses against Northampton and Leicester.

"To come away from the games against Leicester and Northampton with just one point, taking into context the challenges we were facing, I didn't think was fair, but fairness doesn’t come into life,” said Kingston.

“But to get five points tonight, I was very pleased for the players, it was the minimum six points we deserved from those three games.

“We are happy to put our hands up and say we have underperformed from day one but since then, the level of performance has been good.

“I felt during the last two weeks, we haven’t had the results and we are in the results industry, so to come out and to get the result and play as well as we did in the game was really pleasing.”

But on a night when stalwart James Horwill was unavailable after failing to complete his concussion protocol, Quins' bonus-point win was eclipsed by an injury to Jack Clifford. 

The back-row is now set to be a major doubt for England’s autumn internationals, having departed the field with his right arm in a sling following a collision at the breakdown.

And having already missed his country’s tour to Argentina in the summer with surgery on the same shoulder, the 24-year-old’s injury is the latest to hit Kingston’s squad.

"It's frustrating for him [Jack Clifford] because he played ever so well while he was on the pitch. But it's too early to say how long he'll be out for,” said Kingston.

"To give an insight on where we are injury-wise, we had a training session here on Thursday night under lights and we actually had five players in doubt.

"Three of them missed and two of them got in and Jack was one of those. He had a sore biceps and pec on the left side, so he had strength tablets to get out on the pitch in the first place.”