South West 1 - Oxford Harlequins 15, Cheltenham 14: Oxford Harlequins were made to sweat as they scraped a tense South West 1 victory over Cheltenham at Horspath Road on Saturday.

Although Quins dominated territorially and created far more chances, Cheltenham had two late kicks to seal the points.

Neither was easy and visiting skipper Philip Watters missed both, but Cheltenham should never have had a sniff of winning in the first place.

As well as Quins played up front, their backs struggled throughout, and erratic passing, notably from skipper Andy Noyce and centre Clint Searle, saw them spurn several great chances.

Quins managed to outscore Cheltenham two tries to one thanks to efforts from Searle and Anthony Cope.

But Noyce, who was leading the side for the first time in the league, said there was plenty of room for improve- ment.

"I was pleased to get the result, no matter how it came, but we played well below our best.

"We want to play a far more expansive game of rugby. To be fair, they stopped us playing and were very aggressive at the break- down."

He added: "Phil Vinter worked very hard with Paddy Soper and Jamie Cope. We've got a solid back row.

"I think we are a bit more streetwise up front now. We would have lost a game like that two years ago."

Cheltenham relied heavily on Watters and fly half Chris Sutton's excellent kicking, the latter opening the scoring with a third-minute penalty.

On 22 minutes, Noyce's floated pass failed to reach winger Jez Tanner when Quins looked odds-on to score.

Sutton made it 6-0 with a penalty on the half-hour and Noyce added one of his own before Quins scrum half Owen Gustaffson was sidelined with a hip injury.

Temporarily down to 14 men, the hosts almost scored in the corner through Eliott Stephenson before Searle made up for his earlier errors with a barnstorming try.

Noyce's conversion made it 10-6 at the break and although Sutton reduced the arrears to 10-9, Quins were not unduly troubled.

Flanker Jamie Cope was becoming more influential, while replacement prop Simon Chadbone twice went close.

The breakthrough came on 67 minutes when Quins caught and drove from a line-out and Anthony Cope, now playing at scrum half, scored a pushover try.

Cheltenham lock Stuart Crabb repeated the trick seven minutes later, but Quins came through a nail-biting period of injury time for a win they should have secured much earlier.