Paul Gustard was left frustrated by his Harlequins side's inaccuracy as Bristol Bears secured their first win at The Stoop in 19 years, with a 27-19 success.  

Quins led 9-5 at the break thanks to the boot of Marcus Smith, but three second-half tries from Steve Luatua, Harry Randall and Niyi Adeolokun for the visitors put the game to bed.  

The turning point appeared to come when Wilco Louw’s potential first score for Quins was ruled out, only for Bristol to go down the other end and capitalise through Dan Thomas’ try.  

It was the Bears’ first Premiership win at Harlequins since 2001 and Gustard was satisfied with the effort on show, albeit ultimately disappointed with the result.  

“I think we’re really pleased with the first half, obviously off the back of a poor performance last week,” Gustard said.  

“We asked the team to show a physical response, to work unbelievably hard and I think in the first half we saw that.  

“The big turning moment obviously the last three minutes of the first half, camped down at their line, two or three penalty advantages.  

“We feel we got a score with Wilco, obviously it wasn’t given and from the ensuing play we get turned over in the corner, they kick the line out from a penalty infringement and 10, 12 ,15 phases later they score. 

“A huge swing from potentially going 16-0 up to going 9-5 up. Start the second half badly, again give a cheap score and we suffered in territory, suffered in possession, we kept inviting pressure on ourselves through some inaccuracies.  

“For all the hard work that we did, for those scores to happen seems like a bit of a kick in the balls.” 

The result leaves Quins fifth in the table with two wins to their name in the 2020-21 campaign thus far.  

But after two disappointing losses in Europe, against Munster and Racing 92, Gustard’s side would have hoped to bounce straight back with a win.  

And despite the improvements in their game, the head of rugby knows his team need to kick on and not rest on their laurels.  

Gustard added: “For the most part we defended well today, but when we switch off and make a mistake and we get punished.  

“We’re too easy to score against at the moment. Everyone is working hard at it, our principles we evaluate all the time.  

“To lose at home, we’re hurting, and to lose a game we’re hurting but we’ve got to dust ourselves down and prepare for next week.  

“[There were] Some steps in the right direction today, our maul defence was much improved. We have to get ourselves ready for Worcester because that’s a big game on Friday night.”