Paul Gustard has defended his decision to rotate his Harlequins side after Friday’s home defeat to Ulster that ended their hopes of reaching the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals.

A last-gasp defeat in Belfast the previous week had left Quins with a mountain to climb if they were to reach the knockout stages.

And Gustard made the decision to leave Danny Care, Chris Robshaw and Marcus Smith, among others, out of the return fixture, which Ulster won easily, 34-10.

When questioned about his selections afterwards, Gustard refuted the suggestion that it had an impact on the match.

“It had absolutely zero bearing on the game. It’s irrelevant, absolutely irrelevant,” said an obviously irritated Gustard.

“The first half was good – we defended resiliently, in fact magnificently. They battered away at us but couldn’t score.

“We had field position with a minute and a half to go, then a set-piece defence error and they go the length and score. Bit of a thunderbolt.

“The second half wasn’t good enough at all – we got bullied at the maul and they won every single high ball. A really disappointing second half.

“Cooney [Ulster scrum-half John Cooney] kept putting up high bombs and it was death by a thousand cuts. It wasn’t good enough for a Harlequins team and it wasn’t good enough for a team at home either.

“The good thing is the game stops at 80 minutes – if you carry it over into the week, then you’ll have an adverse reaction the following weekend.”

With their European adventure effectively over – albeit with two pool games still to come – attention now turns back to domestic matters.

Quins currently sit eighth in the table, with two wins from their first five Gallagher Premiership matches.

On Saturday they travel to Wasps to take on Dai Young’s team who are struggling down in 10th place, with Quins looking for a win as they try to force their way back into the race for the top four.