Jarvis, joining Bristol next season, was yellow-carded early in the second half - and during his spell in the sin-bin, the hosts were awarded a penalty try to add to the first-half touchdown from wing Tom Arscott - with fly-half Tom Barnes kicking a conversion and a penalty.

Richards was broadly satisfied, albeit with some qualms.

"If you'd have asked me on Saturday if I'd be happy with five points I'd have said I'd be delighted," he said. "Full credit to the young boys again - they played very, very well.

"I don't think we appreciated enough where to play the game for the first 10 minutes of the second half. A silly turnover - which gave Bristol that little bit of advantage with a series of penalties, a penalty try and a sin-binning - could have cost us dear. But we kept our heads.

"The beauty is that the youngsters are maturing with every game, and they're learning with every game as well."

Bristol head coach Richard Hill had less to smile about.

"We dominated possession and territory in the first half but we weren't quite clinical enough to finish things off," he said. "We got into good positions and then failed to win the line-out. We missed a couple of relatively easy kicks from in front of the posts - which would normally have been slotted over to give the side more confidence.

"There was just a little more riding on the match for Quins than there was for Bristol - and that showed through."

As for the remainder of Bristol's campaign, Hill has had to retrain his sights.

"Heineken Cup is out the window for us," he concedes. "I can now plan for next year by bringing young lads in, rest a few of the old soldiers who have been battling on, let those who need minor operations have them - so basically start planning for next season."