BRISTOL’S acting head coach Mark Tainton looked a deflated man as he tried to explain how his club were outclassed by Harlequins on Friday night.

But he is not giving up the ghost on the club’s Aviva Premiership survival and said: “There are eight games to go and it (the ball) is totally in our court.”

After coming so close to winning on the first day of the Premiership season, when Quins won 21-19 at Twickenham, Bristol were not at the races after the break as their opponents ran away with a comfortable victory.

Wing Tom Varndell scored his 91st Premiership try and, in doing so, beat the all-time record set by Mark Cueto as Bristol gave Quins a run for their money during the opening period.

But Varndell went off with a toe injury and will have to be assessed before the away clash at Leicester next weekend.

Tainton praised Varndell’s achievement but that did not do anything to dispel the gloom. Tainton said: "It's a magnificent effort and I'm delighted for him as it's thoroughly deserved but him leaving the field with a toe injury and our defeat put a dampener on it.

"There is no divine right to win matches and maybe after our (32-26 defeat) at Northampton in our last Premiership game, we thought we were better than we are.

"We started slowly but we played at pace and we gave a soft try away. But, in the first half, I thought we built ourselves back into it and our defence got better and better. We clawed our way back to within a score at half-time but, in the second half, our intensity wasn’t where it had to be.

“Individual errors cost us. They have kicked off, we’ve caught the ball and a lad comes around and takes the ball off us and puts pressure on us.

“We started to chase the game early, we were not accurate enough and our indiscipline allowed them to get field position without actually doing too much for it.”

After a bright Christmas and New Year, where Bristol won crucial games at home to Worcester Warriors and away to Sale Sharks plus running Northampton close, the switch to European and Anglo-Welsh Cup rugby seems to have knocked them back.

They lost four times after the defeat at Northampton, and the Quins reverse made it five.

And with only eight matches left in the season in order to save their Premiership bacon, every point will count.

Tainton added: “Our set piece did not function as we wanted it to function. We didn’t get enough quality ball to play phase football and when you are not playing phase football against Premiership sides, they can stand off and defence against you.

“The majority of that side would have played a couple of weeks ago, though, against the Ospreys. I do not think it is a lack of rugby. Maybe we won a couple of games and got a good result in Northampton (with a losing bonus point) and thought we are probably in a better position than we are.

“We have to go away to Welford Road next week and try and get something there before we play Bath in a couple of weeks.”