Leeds give Bristol something to think about

Leeds shoved Harlequins deeper into the relegation mire yesterday with a 24-6 home win over Bristol, which left the London club five points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership.

Five goals from Springbok fly half Braam van Straaten on top of tries from Craig Emmerson and Dan Scarbrough gave the Tykes their first back- to- back wins of the season, enough to move them to within a point of Saracens, Bath and Wasps.

All four clubs have a game in hand on the increasingly distressed Quins, whose worsening plight means they must win four of their six remaining matches to have a realistic hope of avoiding automatic relegation from the top division for the first time.

The fact that Quins have won only three times in the League all season underlines the difficulty of the salvage operation facing their chief executive- cum- caretaker coach Mark Evans.

To make matters worse, they have only two home fixtures left, against Newcastle on Saturday and Leeds on May 4, and are without an away League win for 12 months.

Bristol head coach Dean Ryan blamed his side's lack of motivation for the defeat.

He said: 'I thought we were outfought and out-passioned. We can't hide behind technicalities. We can talk about them, but I thought our collective desire to win was appalling - and we need to face that.