Three second-half tries earned Oxford Harlequins an impressive 21-6 home victory over Weston-super-Mare in South West 1.

Quins trailed 6-0 after a fruitless opening period, but increased the pace to great effect after that.

Full back Mark Preston was the catalyst for this turnaround against a Weston side, who lacked the variety to cause real problems.

The visitors had the game's most dangerous runner in Chris Crichton, but didn't give him enough of the ball.

Quins, on the other hand, created plenty of chances with their slick handling and could have scored more tries.

The match exploded into life inside two minutes with Quins prop Paul DeLange lucky not to be red-carded for punching Weston No 8 George Sparks.

DeLange escaped with a yellow and there were plenty of niggling incidents after this, but referee Simon Adams kept some control.

Weston fly half Mark Armstrong slotted the resulting penalty and kicked another on 11 minutes to put his side 6-0 up.

Quins took a while to gain any momentum, while both defences remained on top.

Centre Andy Henley sliced through the Weston midfield on 18 minutes, but was stopped by Crichton's excellent tap tackle.

Too much of the play that followed was scrappy and Quins didn't help themselves by passing up two kickable penalties.

Henley had one further break on the half-time whistle, but Weston had been largely untroubled.

That all changed immediately after the break when Preston shredded the Weston defence on the right and lock Dave Payne was on hand to finish.

Fly half Frank Jones slotted the conversion and suddenly Quins were on top.

Weston had lock Ashley Russell sin-binned for killing the ball on 49 minutes just after he himself appeared to have been struck in another flare-up.

A sharp break from Beau Wilson looked set to give Quins a second try, but a mix-up between Preston and wing Tom Johnson ended that chance.

The numbers were further reduced when rival scrum halves, Quins' Anthony Cope and Weston's Luke Hember, were yellow-carded for a fairly minor scuffle.

Weston conceded twice when down to 13 men and that was effectively game over.

Full back Harry Warman gifted Henley an interception try on 58 minutes.

Four minutes later, the move of the match saw Henley hand off Warman deep in his own half before racing clear.

Preston injected further pace and the ever-present Phil Rowe dived over.

Jones's two conversions made it 21-6 and only then did Weston get the ball moving.

Crichton twice went close, the latter in the 12th-minute of stoppage time when he was brilliantly tap-tackled by replacement Andy Noyce.

Quins threatened a fourth try after hooker Dave Needham snaffled a bouncing ball in the Weston 22, but Johnson couldn't quite get over on the right.

Oxford Harlequins: Preston, Johnson, A Henley, Wilson, Davies (Noyce 71), Jones, A Cope (capt), Aldous, Needham, DeLange, Payne, Eckert, Rowe (Goodger 80), Alcock, Soper.

Referee: S Adams (Bristol).

Quins' man-of-the-match: Preston.