Date published: 14/12/2009

Harlequins head coach John Kingston warned that his chastened side will not grant Sale a soft return match despite going down 29-19 at The Stoop. Quins scored three tries and shipped four, including a memorable final score from Ben Cohen, in an entertaining encounter.

The defeat ensured Quins would stand no chance of progressing from Pool Five but Kingston has warned Sharks to expect a tough challenge at Edgeley Park next weekend.

Kingston said: "It was win or bust. We gave away so many soft tries in the first half that we had to really go for it in the second.

"We were asleep first half ? I don't know, but I do know we conceded a lot of soft points. We spoke at the break not about mistakes but about reminding the boys that what we'd seen is not us and that we'd switched off at times.

"They had four chances and they scored four tries. It's been a massively disappointing Heineken Cup campaign, but we should warn Sale that we won't travel all the way up there next weekend without being competitive.

"We don't want them to win again and feel they've got a hold over us when we meet in the league on New Year's Day.

"When we got to the tournament we were reminded of the sad gremlins of the summer, but two of the better games in the Heineken Cup have been here, against Toulouse and now Sale."

Kingston also refuted suggestions in some quarters that the current rules favour defensive rugby.

"The rugby we saw today proves again, as we did against Gloucester, that saying people cannot play rugby under the existing rules is hogwash."

On the disciplinary situation surrounding Quins' England scrum-half Danny Care, he added: "We suspended Danny Care for a game after being alerted that a tackle he made at Leeds might be percieved as citeable. We decided that his tackle merited a yellow card, not red. Now we has been cited so we have to wait and see."