Brown guides Quins to victory

Mike Brown celebrated his England return with the winning try as Harlequins took a giant step towards securing a place in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup with a 20-14 win over Gloucester.

The full-back took advantage of Danny Care's chip, and a mistake from his new England colleague Charlie Sharples, to touch down in the 73rd minute.

Gloucester had proved a tough nut to crack up until that point, with the Cherry and Whites cancelling out Matt Hopper's opening try with an effort from James Simpson-Daniel.

Soane Tonga'uiha and Ben Foden scored tries as Northampton produced a superb second-half fightback to end the Scarlets' quarter-final hopes with a 29-17 win at Parc y Scarlets.

Johne Murphy and Wian du Preez crossed but Munster were far from convincing as a 26-10 victory over Castres at Thomond Park confirmed them as the first qualifiers for the last eight.

Sam Warburton's second-half try complemented a fine Leigh Halfpenny kicking display as Cardiff Blues marked their 100th Heineken Cup match with a tight 22-15 victory at London Irish to move a giant step closer to quarter-final qualificatio

Bath's disappointing campaign continued as they slumped to their fourth defeat in five matches this season after going down to a 24-22 defeat at the hands of Montpellier.

A spirited Connacht side made Toulouse battle all the way before the reigning French champions eventually sealed a 24-3 bonus-point win.

Sitiveni Sivivatu and Julien Malzieu scored hat-tricks as Clermont ran in 12 tries to thrash Aironi 82-0 in their Pool Four match at Stadio Brianteo to keep alive hopes of a place in the quarter-finals.