Harlequins boss Paul Gustard praised the all-round performance of his side as they beat relegated Saracens 41-14 at The Stoop on Sunday.

Gustard’s side went into the fixture without a win in their last two Premiership Rugby matches but started strongly with early tries from Danny Care and Cadan Murley.

Despite a late surge from Mark McCall’s men, the Quins finished with a comfortable win that was impressive in defence and attack with Murley adding another score alongside further tries from Gabriel Ibitoye, Paul Lasike, and Martin Landajo.

"To score 40 points is always the sign of a good performance I think, but it was the execution that we had overall - aggression in our defence, dominance in our set-piece and the ambition that we played with in our attack,” Gustard said.

"The weather wasn't the greatest but I think we showed that if you have the courage to play and you get momentum, then you can hurt teams and we've got players who can do that.

"I think we really respected the badge today.”

Off of the back of some improved recent European showings Harlequins took advantage of the ongoing turmoil at Saracens to keep up the pressure on those just ahead of them in a congested Premiership table.

Gustard added: “In the last two weeks in Europe, we have played pretty well and we knew we needed to get a result here. Four points was critical and five is a real bonus for us.”

Saracens went into the match with five wins out of eight this season, but were sanctioned with automatic relegation last weekend, the effect of which was clear during a drab and lifeless performance.

Gustard was adamant however that the pre-match talk didn’t affect his side with the team focused solely on their performance on the day.

“We just tried to focus on the 15 v 15,” Gustard added. “There is nothing else we can control. We got the result we wanted and the rest around the match is smoke and mirrors.”