Oxford Harlequins coach Tony Edney was quietly satisfied at his side’s victory over Barnstaple.

Edney, who took charge in the absence of director of rugby John Brodley due to work commitments, said: “We were trying to play a really, fast expansive game.

“You can’t fault their enthusiasm for playing attacking rugby.

“We didn’t always make the right decisions – we needed a bit more discipline in breaking them down.

“They were quite sound defensively, so we said at half-time, let’s make sure we build the phases.

“We were expecting a big scrummaging game and our selection was based on that. We have done a lot of work since the Chinnor game.”

Edney added: “We can still improve on that. That is the difference between last season and now.

“We would have been happy as anything to win this match, but now we can say that was not as good as we need to be.”