Harlequins’ 31-0 defeat of Sale Sharks was much tougher than the scoreline suggests, according to Quins’ number eight Jade Konkel.

The win meant they remained top of the Premier 15s table as they continued their perfect start to the season.

But Konkel said: "It was a very hard 70 minutes, probably the longest 70 minutes I’ve played in a very long time. They came out really hard, they’ve got some really big hitters and they did not make our job easy at all!

“They literally fought for that full match and you know we tried to break them down and they came back at us hard again, so hats off to them, they really made it a tough slog.”

She added it was ‘frustrating’ playing a lot in Sharks’ 22 and not converting more points.

"It can be frustrating but again you’ve just got to take it each phase at a time and like I said they didn’t make our job easy, so we were trying to punch the line, punch the line but they definitely fought against us.

“We just needed a bit more patience in that area, maybe tighten it up a bit.”

Next up for Quins is Gloucester-Hartpury on November 28.