NEWPORT Gwent Dragons were hit by a second-half Harlequins comeback to go down to a 31-21 defeat in their LV= Cup opener at the Twickenham Stoop.

It looked like the region would follow up their shock European Rugby Challenge Cup win at Stade Francais by stunning another big gun on their own turf when they led 21-8 at the break.

However, the Quins turned it on in the second half, completely dominating possession and territory to emerge with a deserved success.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Dragons, even though their second-half collapse meant an eighth loss of the campaign and ensured they didn’t even have the consolation of a bonus point.

The visitors were boosted by the returns of Cory Hill, Andrew Coombs and Ross Wardle as things start to look up on the injury front.

They all looked lively and will strengthen the squad when the Guinness Pro12 returns while new South African recruit Harris scrummaged strongly and James Thomas picked up where he left off against Ulster last week by showing a terrific appetite for the dirty work.

Fly-half Dorian Jones responded the gauntlet thrown down by Angus O’Brien to kick beautifully from the tee and produce his most accomplished performance in a regional jersey.

Alas, the new-look pack failed to build on what has been a solid start to the season against the driving lineout with all three of the Quins scores coming after they had put the squeeze on up front.

The final preparations were being made over the A316 for the visit of the All Blacks and while the LV= Cup doesn’t quite set the pulse racing like an autumn Test, it meant an awful lot to those given an opportunity to force their way into the league line-up.

Quins fielded 23 players that are qualified for England while tightheads Brok Harris and David Young were the only non-Welsh members of the Dragons squad.

The nature of the line-ups meant it was a slightly harum-scarum start with Quins wing Ollie Lindsay-Hague profiting from his pack’s good work to go in down the left after six minutes only for the visitors to rapidly respond.

Scrum-half Jonathan Evans charged down the clearance from the restart and then showed twinkle toes to cross in the corner.

Full-back Geraint Rhys Jones was wide with the tricky conversion and then missed a pair of penalty attempts from the other flank but the Dragons had responded well to the early setback.

And they got the score that their efforts deserved when Coombs cut a lovely line to go powering into the Quins 22 and then offload for Thomas to dash over for his first try in Dragons colours.

Dorian Jones took over the kicking duties from his older brother and converted only for opposite number Tim Swiel to respond with a penalty straight from the restart to make it 12-8 after a quarter.

But the Dragons 10 was in the grove and smacked over a trio of tricky penalties to earn his side a well-deserved 21-8 lead at the break.

However, the hosts were rapidly out of the blocks and turned things around to lead 24-21 after an hour thanks to 11 points from the boot of Swiel and a driving lineout score by number eight James Chisholm that came straight after Dragons hooker Elliot Dee was yellow-carded for persistent infringing.

The visitors were on the back foot until a searing break by Dorian Jones put them within inches of the line only for Quins to defend tenaciously and get out of trouble by forcing flanker James Benjamin to knock on.

It was as close as they were to come and it was game over after 70 minutes when Chisholm scored a carbon copy of his earlier score to earn the 31-21 win.

Harlequins: R Chisholm, C Walker, M Hopper, J Turner-Hall (T Casson 50), O Lindsay-Hague, T Swiel, K Dickson (captain), M Lambert (D Marfo 70), R Buchanan (D Ward 50), K Sinckler (W Collier 50), C Matthews (G Merrick 60), S Twomey, J Trayfoot (H Cheeseman 65), J Clifford, J Chisholm .

Scorers: tries – W Lindsay-Hague, J Chisholm (2); conversions – T Swiel (2); penalties – T Swiel (4)

Dragons: G R Jones, A Hewitt, M Pewtner, R Wardle (R Williams 55), A Brew (B Nightingale 72), D Jones, J Evans (L Jones 68), P Price (H Gustafson 67), E Dee, B Harris (D Young 61), J Thomas (J Davies 50), C Hill (captain), A Coombs, J Benjamin (O Griffiths 67), A Powell (H Gustafson 51-57, J Thomas 61).

Scorers: tries – J Evans, J Thomas; conversion – D Jones; penalties – D Jones (3)

Referee: Greg MacDonald

Attendance: 7,623

Argus star man: James Thomas