Harlequins ended the Guinness Premiership season with a five-try, five-point victory which had all the elements of their campaign, a mixture of the superb and the very ordinary.

In the end, however, they fully deserved to wrap up the season with a victory – with late determination proving decisive. However, they failed to achieve their target of a top six finish.

For former champions Sale, a campaign spent fighting to stave off relegation can hardly be regarded as a successful season..

It was a special day for wing David Strettle and hooker Tani Fuga – both playing their final games for Harlequins. England wing Strettle is joining Saracens while Fuga has become a free agent.

The hosts lost lock James Percival after only two minutes. He was hurt in an open play tackle and left the field on a stretcher after three minutes treatment to be replaced by Tomas Vallejos.

But two minutes later the mood in the home camp was a lot lighter as George Lowe raced clear up the left to open the scoring in fine style with a try created for him by Jordan Turner-Hall. Fly-half Nick Evans missed the conversion.