Another week, another last-gasp match-winning score for Marcus Smith. No matter that Harlequins played more than half the match without Mike Brown – whose career at the club may now be over with a suspension looming following his red card – or that Wasps were full value for their six tries. Smith is writing his own scripts at the moment and he is developing a taste for the dramatic. He finished a thrilling contest with 28 points and his second try, with the clock in the red, pulled Harlequins level at 46-46 before his conversion settled matters. He set up three of Quins’s six tries too and levelled the club’s record for an individual points haul. It was desperately harsh on Wasps – for whom the scrum-half Dan Robson was in sublime form – but given Brown was sent off on 44 minutes for a stamp to the head of Tommy Taylor, and also received a first-half yellow card, the visitors really ought to have seen the match out. They had not reckoned with Smith, however. For it was more Roy of the Rovers stuff – he did the same with Harlequins down to 14 men in their last match at London Irish – and there was a sense of inevitability that the 22-year-old would have the final say. It is a rare thing indeed when players find this kind of form, the kind that gives the impression that the match is anything they want it to be. But Smith is doing precisely that at the moment, even if he reckons he is “miles off” where he wants to ultimately get to. He was not a surprise inclusion among the British & Irish Lions squad last week – despite being sounded out by Warren Gatland over his availability – but he must surely win a first England cap this summer. Eddie Jones was in the stands here and though he had left before the grandstand finish, the hope must be that he had already seen enough. Equally it would be no surprise if Robson is his half-back partner on this evidence. “Looking at [Marcus] last year it was whether managing a game was his strong-point, we know he runs the ball and takes it to the line well – but he’s an all-round player now,” said the Harlequins coach Adam Jones. “He’s got to be on the England tour. He’s got to be the future. He was chatted about with the Lions wasn’t he, so Gats has obviously seen something special in him as well. If he was Welsh he would have 50 caps by now.” For Harlequins, the victory is all the more sweet because it stretches the gap between them in fourth and Northampton in fifth to nine points. The only downside is Brown’s red card and the ban that could mean this was his final appearance for a club, having made his first 16 years ago. “Of course it would be sad,” added Jones. “He is gutted. I’m sure the club will go balls-out to defend him as much as we can. Hopefully common sense prevails and the different issues with it come through.” Wasps scored first with a Jacob Umaga penalty before Smith’s first eye-catching intervention – a delightful crossfield kick for Joe Marchant to streak clear down the right. Robson returned fire by freeing Josh Bassett for Wasps’s first try and Paolo Odogwu was next over for the visitors, again with their scrum-half heavily involved in the buildup. Brown was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on in the buildup to compound Harlequins problems and Robson then got in on the act with Wasps’ third score. Back came Harlequins however, with Smith fizzing a pass out to James Lang on the right. Smith then had his first after combining well with Brown and Marchant down the left and his penalty on the stroke of half-time nosed Harlequins ahead 24-22. Soon after the break Brown was giving his marching orders after a stamp to Taylor’s head and two quickfire Wasps tries through Thomas Young and Malakai Fekitoa put the visitors in control. Danny Care responded from close range for Harlequins and when Smith put Alex Dombrandt away down the left, the hosts were ahead again. Bassett’s second – after a lovely grubber from Robson – appeared to have finally ended Harlequins’ resistance but Smith collected Marchant’s pass and burst over at the death and he and Umaga had traded penalties. “You can’t come to the Stoop and score 46 points and lose the game,” said Wasps’ director of rugby Lee Blackett.