Harlequins 30 Gloucester 25: Easter's resilience makes Gloucester bend the knee

(GETTY IMAGES)

Gloucester's back row of Alasdair Strokosch, Akapusi Qera and Luke Narraway have won plenty of plaudits this season for their amalgam of bish, bosh and dash, but collectively they lacked one thing Harlequins had on Saturday: a No 8 playing out of his skin on one leg. Step forward, Nick Easter – but be careful while you are at it.

The medial ligaments in Easter's right knee were injured just after Christmas – Quins' run of results was unhealthy at the time, with one win in 10 – and after a five-week rest he returned for England against Italy in Rome. By half-time of this fourth defeat in six Premiership matches for Gloucester, the leaders, Easter was on the point of coming off the field but the Harlequins captain (Paul Volley, the club skipper, cannot get in the side) felt that "the knee would be all right once the blood got pumping around it".

From there on in a match of seven tries – four of them to Gloucester – Easter was the epitome of understated excellence. His progress off scrums could be counted in inches; he watched Gloucester penalties from the far touchline. It was straight from the playbook of Quins' director of rugby, Dean Richards, who knew a thing or two about letting your fellow forwards do the walking.

Easter and Danny Care – the 21-year-old Quins scrum-half – are in the England squad which met in Bath last night to prepare to face Scotland; so too is James Simpson-Daniel, the back who was brilliant in setting up the third of Gloucester's four tries for Anthony Allen. He cut through for one himself to put Gloucester 25-20 up after 57 minutes. But the ill-starred centre or wing who last played – and scored – for England on tour in South Africa last year admitted: "We might have won if all my errors had been taken out."

The case against the defence of Simpson-Daniel and Iain Balshaw was hardened when a 6ft 5in academy lock, George Robson, high-stepped his way through a dog-legged back line for the clinching try with seven minutes left. It was converted by a replacement, Chris Malone, and came hard on the heels of a penalty by Adrian Jarvis after one of Care's many lively contributions was snuffed out by a high tackle.

Easter said he would be ready for the Scots. "We want to win the Six Nations, no question about it, and beating France was a massive stepping stone for us."

Gloucester's head coach, Dean Ryan, has problems closer to home. A team stuffed with players toing and froing from internationals have lost their way. They needed a better return from Willie Walker than two successes from seven kicks – with the ace marksman Chris Paterson unused on the bench – and they needed Peter Buxton to exploit a huge overlap with time ticking away.

Above all, they needed a Nick Easter.

Harlequins: Tries Jones, Brown, Robson; Conversions Jarvis 2, Malone; Penalties Jarvis 3. Gloucester: Tries Adams, Balshaw, Allen, Simpson-Daniel; Conversion Walker; Penalty Walker.

Harlequins: M Brown; T Williams, H Luscombe (DW Barry, 70), T Masson, U Monye; A Jarvis (C Malone, 70), D Care; C Jones, T Fuga, M Ross, J Percival (G Robson, 40), N Spanghero, C Robshaw, W Skinner, N Easter (capt).

Gloucester: I Balshaw; J Simpson-Daniel, J Adams (M Foster, 40), A Allen, L Vainikolo; W Walker, R Lawson; N Wood (A Dickinson, 66), O Azam (A Titterrell, 50), C Nieto, P Buxton (capt), A Brown, A Strokosch, A Qera (M Bortolami, 61), L Narraway (G Delve, 54).

Referee: S Davey (Sussex).