Out-half Keith Pyper put the home side in front with a penalty on 20 minutes. Barry Keeshan's penalty on 31 minutes levelled the scores at half-time though Dolphin had a try ruled out after a quick Thomas O'Leary penalty released James Coughlan; the number eight's pass to full-back Gerry Conway was adjudged forward.

Dolphin started the second half brightly but Keeshan was off-target with a drop-goal attempt.

O'Leary got the game's only try on 55 minutes. Marshall was caught in possession and from the resulting scrum Coughlan broke on the blind side and put O'Leary over in the corner with Keeshan adding the difficult conversion.

Rory Blake-Knox made a trysaving clearance for the home side after winning a foot race with hooker Kieran Murray.

Keeshan increased the Dolphin lead with a penalty on 67 minutes following a good drive from his pack. Quins had lock Garrett Rourke sin-binned on 70 minutes and wasted a series of opportunities in the closing stages to claim a bonus point.

BELFAST HARLEQUINS M Kittyle; G McLoughlin, K Pyper, P McKenzie, J Lowe; R Blake-Knox, P Marshall; M Conlon, S Philpott, B Lynch; G Rourke, M Graham; A Gillespie, R Devonshire, C McCarey Subs A Ward for Devonshire, 65 mins DOLPHIN G Conway; E Mills, P Owens, E Maloney, B Kingston; B Keeshan, T O'Leary; F Gately, K Murray, J O'Sullivan; R McGrath, E Harty; G Finn, D Murphy, J Coughlan Subs J O'Mahony for E Moloney, 20 mins Referee D Keane (Leinster)