Quins had won their first four West Asia Championship games before suffering a bruising 25-10 reversal at the hands of Sarries on Friday night, although they had hardly looked at their fluid best.

Mike McFarlane’s men opened their campaign with a stuttering 48-14 triumph at whipping boys Muscat while a forfeit from Al Ain might have gifted them a 20-0 win but did little for fitness.

They trailed for an hour to Jebel Ali Dragons three weeks ago before fighting back to win 36-22 while Luke Stevenson’s last-gasp penalty gave them a slender 37-34 victory against Dubai Hurricanes last week.

Having also missed the first two weeks due to a postponed fixture and a natural bye week, skipper Abraham feels defeat at Al Ghazal was a wake-up call.

“It’s tough but you can’t scrape by every weekend,” said Quins’ American prop.

“It’s probably the slap in the face we needed to make things right.

“It’s not easy but we have to take things from this constructively and stay positive.

“We’ve got some big games coming up and one loss hopefully won’t derail our title chances. We’re still third and a game like this just shows how tough it is across the board.

“We’ve got a tough game versus Doha next week and we need to work on that, our work ethic.”