Harlequins 22 Salford City Reds 26: Salford Reds rally to leapfrog Harlequins at the bottom

Coach Shaun McRae expects Salford to begin a march up the Engage Super League table after the Reds earned their first win of the season with a comeback triumph at Harlequins.

The visitors were 18-4 down after 50 minutes at the Twickenham Stoop, but fought back with a vengeance thanks to Steven Tyrer's hat-trick of tries.

McRae has urged his charges to build on the confidence boost of the unlikely triumph. "It is a massive relief to get that first win and get off the foot of the table," he said. "I am hoping this is the catalyst for us – we have lit the fuse for the season now and it is up to us to carry on the work.

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"We have had some good performances against the bigger sides this campaign but did not get anything out of them, so this is a massive confidence boost.

"The key for us was possession – out of the last 15 sets in the game 10 were ours and that tells you everything.

"We knew if we kept the ball we would have a chance of wearing Harlequins down and that came to happen.

"No disrespect to Harlequins but we will have some bigger challenges ahead, but we will go into those games in confidence."

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In a scrappy game befitting a bottom of the table encounter, there was precious little guile but plenty of effort on display in the opening half.

The Reds took an early lead when Karl Fitzpatrick dummied his way over in what was to prove their only real attack of the half. But, with a distinct lack of cutting edge, it was not until the 30-minute mark that the hosts troubled the scoreboard.

Danny Orr wriggled his way over and they extended the lead moments later when Karl Temata scored. When Lamont Bryan went over shortly after the interval it looked game over, but the Reds had other ideas.

Tyrer grabbed his first try thanks to Fitzpatrick's lofted pass, and minutes later some slick passing put him in again.

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When Jodie Broughton scorched in with five minutes left Salford scented victory.

There was still time for Tyrer to complete his hat-trick and Ben Jones-Bishop to add a late score for Quins but the game was up.

Quins coach Brian McDermott adopted a philosophical approach to seeing his side fall to the bottom of the table. He said: "I know people will look at the score and see we lost to Salford and be negative about it but we cannot afford that.

"It was not a case of us throwing it away. Salford just got hold of the game with their kicking play and we just could not get away from our line in the second half.

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"We did not make some smart decisions and that cost us, but the players will learn from that."

Harlequins: Jones-Bishop, O'Callaghan, Clubb, Howell, Sharp, Melling, Orr, Ward, Randall, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Williamson, Bolger, Golden. Substitutes: Bibb, Wilkes, Bryan, Temata.

Salford Reds: Fitzpatrick, Broughton, Henry, Gibson, Tyrer, Holdsworth, M. Smith, Parker, Alker, Boyle, Littler, Adamson, Swain. Substitutes: Leuluai, J. Smith, Jewitt, Sidlow.

Referee: B Thaler (Wakefield).

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