Brooke leads from the pack

Repeating under cover of darkness what they achieved in broad daylight at the weekend proved no bother for the dandy highwaymen…

Repeating under cover of darkness what they achieved in broad daylight at the weekend proved no bother for the dandy highwaymen of Harlequins last night. Another daring assault on opponents from the upper echelons of the Premiership yielded swag to compare with their startling win over Saracens and a first victory for the coach Zinzan Brooke in an on-field capacity.

His influence on a determined home side was unmissable, even if Gloucester put up limp resistance for a team who had rattled up 41 points on Saturday.

John Schuster, with 35 successful kicks out of 39 before kick-off, missed only two attempts from nine on the night to contribute a further 19 points, and the pace of Daren O'Leary was rewarded with two good tries to manufacture a result which will cause much head-scratching in the West Country.

Three Schuster penalties settled early home flutters before O'Leary intercepted an attempted looped pass by Ojomoh and roared past Catling down the right touch-line to score.

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Coach Richard Hill dislikes using substitutes, but with Gloucester 14-0 down at the break, he must have been sorely tempted to throw on his entire bench at once.

A lone 71st-minute penalty try when Wright impeded Devereux represented Gloucester's just deserts.

Harlequins: Williams; O'Leary, Officer, Schuster, Luger; Lacroix, Wright; Leonard, Wood, Yates, Llewellyn, Morgan, Jenkins, Brooke, Leach. Replacements: Davison for Llewellyn (70 mins), Mensah for Officer (72 mins), Ridgeway for Wood (70 mins), Going for Williams (72 mins). Not used: Harries, Barnes, Halpin.

Gloucester: Catling; Lumsden, Fanolua, Tombs, Saint-Andre; Mannix, Sanders; Woodman, Fortey, Deacon, Cornwell, Sims, Pearce, Ojomoh, Carter. Replacements: Kimber for Mannix (79 mins), Jones for Catling (79 mins), McCarthy for Fortey (49 mins), Windo for Woodman (60 mins), Ward for Cornwell (74 mins), Devereux for Pearce (60 mins). Not used: Benton. Att: 4,000.

Referee: E Morrison