Quins stunned by Swain

Stuttering Harlequins saw their play-off hopes suffer another severe blow as they were beaten 26-22 by Salford at the Twickenham Stoop.

Trailing by eight points with five minutes to go, the Reds scored two late tries to stun their hosts and seal the two points.

Steve Nash crossed for the first before Luke Swain dived over to complete the dramatic late comeback. Jon Wilshere, who had earlier scored two tries himself, added both conversions.

Defeat will be a desperate blow for Quins, who knew a win against their struggling opponents would have boosted their hopes of a top eight finish.

Move up

Having moved back in to the play-off places following Warrington's heavy loss at Wigan on Friday night, Brian McDermott's side knew a third victory of the campaign over the City Reds would shift them up to seventh.

However, a horrible run had seen them win just one of their last eight outings and they were understandably apprehensive in the opening quarter.

With both sides happy to play for territory, rather than chance their arm in attack, it took a mistake for the deadlock to finally be broken.

Jon Wells failed to deal with a Stefan Ratchford kick and Wilshere pounced on the error to give Salford the lead.

Going behind seemed to stun Quins into life and they stormed ahead thanks to two tries in the space of four minutes midway through the opening half.

Luke Dorn grabbed the first when he forced his way over before hooker Chad Randall followed suit, both scores coming from close range.

Rob Purdham slotted over one of his two conversion attempts to make it 10-4 and give the home team the platform to push on for further points.

Instead, they continued to turn in a lacklustre display and were punished for their approach when Salford scored twice before the break to go in front.

Robbie Paul's superb dummy fooled the defence and set up Wilshere for his second of the match in the corner before a telegraphed pass by Dorn was picked off by Dean McGilvray, who then raced the length of the field to score.

With perhaps some strong words from boss McDermott still ringing in their ears, Quins came out a different side straight after the interval.

Open approach

Their new open approach with ball in hand led to Rob Purdham waltzing over for a try five minutes into the second half that he also managed to convert.

Both sides stepped up the intensity in a bid to gain control but it wasn't until the closing stages that the game really came to life.

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook's surging run from halfway allowed him to cross next to the sticks for a try that appeared to clinch the result in Quins' favour.

Salford, though, had other ideas and sealed a superb comeback win thanks to efforts from Nash and then Swain, who touched down in the dying seconds.