Quins fight back to sting Wasps

Harlequins staged a remarkable recovery as they began the defence of their Premiership title with a 42-40 victory over Wasps at Twickenham.

Wasps, who only avoided relegation on the final day of the last regular season, raced into a 40-13 lead after 56 minutes on Saturday with Christian Wade scoring two tries and providing another for Tom Varndell before forwards Marco Wentzel and Tim Payne crossed Quins' line.

But former All Blacks flyhalf Nick Evans, in his 100th Premiership appearance, scored 22 points in the course of a remarkable rally.

So revitalised were Harlequins, back at the scene of their Premiership final victory over Leicester, they scored four tries and 29 unanswered points in the last quarter of an extraordinary match with their London rivals.

Tom Guest's charge-down try started the fightback before Evans created scores for Mike Brown and then touched down himself before sealing an astounding victory with a penalty four minutes from time.

"I never want to go through that again," said Conor O'Shea, the Harlequins director of rugby.

"I did think the game was gone," the former Ireland fullback added.

"Our set-piece was poor, our discipline, they won the contact areas and when we turned the ball over they stung us.

"It was a long way back – but we got a lot of energy from the bench.

"That try Guest scored from the charge-down just gave us a little bit of hope. The more we played, the more we held onto the ball.

"We started winning the collisions, we got our offloading game going. We are delighted to get away with that but we know defensively we are miles better than that.

"We didn't bring our game. Thankfully we have got away with it. It is the rocket we need, potentially."

Wasps coach Dai Young said: "For 50 minutes we probably played as well as we have done since I have been at the club.

"We talked at half-time about not switching off and keeping our concentration and how good a team Quins were and that they would keep playing.

"Things that weren't sticking for them first half and were sticking for us, it was always going to change.

"It wasn't a surprise for us. I thought the charge-down kick gave them that momentum and for the last 30 minutes we struggled to get our hands on the ball."

The other half of the London double-header at Twickenham saw Saracens thrash London Irish 40-3 as Charlie Hodgson became the first player to pass 2,000 Premiership points and England wing Chris Ashton marked his Sarries debut with two tries.

Elsewhere Exeter slammed Sale 43-6 while Bath edged out Worcester 24-23 and Northampton did enough to see off Gloucester 24-19.

London Welsh, one of the great clubs of the 1970s, begin life in the Premiership following last term's promotion at home to Leicester on Sunday.

All the results and scorers:

Saracens 40-3 London Irish

For Saracens:

Tries: Ashton 2, Barritt, Mordt

Cons: Hodgson 4, Mordt

Pens: Hodgson 3, Goode

For London Irish:

Pen: Homer

Exeter Chiefs 43-6 Sale Sharks

For Exeter Chiefs:

Tries: Jess 2, Mieres, Muldowney, Johnson, Budgen

Cons: Mieres, Steenson

Pen: Mieres 3

For Sale Sharks:

Pens: Macleod 2

Gloucester 19-24 Northampton Saints

For Northampton Saints:

Tries: Pisi 2, Hartley

Cons: Lamb 3

Pen: Lamb

For Gloucester:

Try: Penalty try

Con: Burns

Pens: Burns 4

Worcestor Warriors 23-24 Bath

For Bath:

Pens: Barkley 8

For Worcestor Warriors:

Try: Percival

Pens: Goode 6

Harlequins 42-40 London Wasps

For Harlequins:

Tries: Brown 2, Williams, Evans, Guest

Cons: Evans 4

Pens: Evans 3

For London Wasps:

Tries: Wade 2, Varndell, Payne, Wentzel

Cons: Robinson 3

Pens: Robinson 3