Henry Paul rolled back the years with a vintage performance to steer Harlequins to a surprise 8-6 victory at high-flying Warrington, who were booed off the pitch after a lacklustre effort.

Quins were lacking six first-choice players through injury but Paul combined with Frenchman Julien Rinaldi to form a highly effective half-back partnership and, alongside loose forward Rob Purdham, energised their inexperienced team-mates.

It was tough and tense as Harlequins ended their three-match losing run with victory at the Halliwell Jones Stadium for the second successive season despite the valiant efforts of Wolves skipper Adrian Morley.

Former Salford prop Gareth Haggerty scored his first try for the Londoners to give them the advantage at the halfway stage and they defended heroically in the second half to deservedly take the spoils.

Both sides were severely under-strength and generally lacked a cutting edge but the heavy pitch was hardly conducive to open rugby and the match was littered with handling errors.

There was an early moment of alarm in the visitors' defence when debutant winger Will Sharp was deceived by Michael Monaghan's grubber kick but full-back Jon Wells was on hand to clear the danger.

Quins then went close when centre David Howell chased Rinaldi's kick to the corner and narrowly failed to get the vital touch.

The Londoners eventually took the lead midway through the first half when Warrington's Great Britain hooker Jon Clarke was pulled up for interference and Paul kicked the resultant penalty.

But the Wolves only had themselves to blame for being behind at the interval after failing to capitalise on the sin-binning of Harlequins centre David Howell on 23 minutes for a late challenge on Monaghan.

The under-manned Quins defence was stretched out of position only for Martin Gleeson to ignore his unmarked winger while Vinnie Anderson was unable to ground the ball when he managed to reach the line.

Warrington also ought to have made more of a rare break by Andy Bracek but their handling left a lot to be desired in the difficult conditions and their ineptitude allowed their opponents to dominate the second quarter.

It was no surprise when Harlequins extended their lead just before the break, Haggerty intercepting Monaghan's pass on halfway and sprinting unopposed to the line for the only try of the half.

Paul kicked his second goal to make it 8-0 and that was the last of the scoring until 13 minutes from the end when centre Paul Johnson took a pass from full-back Chris Hicks and stepped inside his man to touch down.

Hicks added the conversion too cut the deficit to two points but the visitors were in no mood to relinquish their hard-won lead.

Both sides suffered more injury woe, with Wells limping off two minutes before half-time and Warrington losing Martin Gleeson two minutes into the second half.