Joe Marler readied himself for England’s pivotal Six Nations meeting with Wales by helping Harlequins to end a run of three consecutive Premiership defeats.

When he departed in the 68th minute, having dominated the Wasps scrum and produced powerful contributions around the field, cheers for him and Danny Care approached the volume that had greeted the defending champions’ five tries.

Released by England following brief appearances from the bench against Scotland and Italy, Marler was back on club duty with the blessing of Eddie Jones, but Tabai Matson, the Harlequins lead coach, does not expect to be able to field his precious loosehead prop in Worcester on Friday evening.

“Even before the Six Nations, [Marler] said that if there were any fallow weeks and he wasn’t getting game time, he’d love to come back and play,” Matson explained. “Clearly, he’s had that conversation with Eddie Jones, which is fantastic for us. On the back of that, surely he’ll be playing against Wales. When he’s at his best, he’s one of the best players in the whole competition. He’s a Harlequins talisman.”

Consolation for Wasps arrived in the form of a losing bonus point, yielded by a late and unlikely revival. Perhaps even more significant, though, was the heart-warming return of exceptional flanker Jack Willis, a year and six days since the sickening knee injury he sustained across the A316 in England’s win over Italy. During a second-half cameo that roused his team, Willis even swooped for a turnover; significant because it was in the act of jackalling – his trademark skill – that he had twisted and damaged himself last February.

Wasps, arriving on the back of four consecutive Premiership victories, would have overtaken Harlequins to breach the top four with a win, but they lost starting hooker Tom Cruse within 30 seconds and promptly fell behind in sloppy style.

Paolo Odogwu spilled a pass from Jacob Umaga in the backfield before conceding a breakdown penalty at the hands of Cadan Murley. Harlequins pounced. Care tapped and spread the ball towards the left touchline, where the sinewy Oscar Beard finished.

Umaga’s penalty cut the gap to 5-3 and Wasps exerted pressure on the back of James Gaskell’s line-out steal. Biyi Alo was a prominent carrier but eventually, when his side looked wider, Harlequins recovered.

Marler does a good impression of a light entertainer at Harlequins home games, his off-the-ball antics and facial expressions causing ripples of laughter among adoring supporters, although it should be stressed that Marler is rarely distracted enough for his rugby to dip below excellent. Indeed, he seems to thrive on antagonistic subplots.

“He’s a fantastic practitioner of the game and he’s unique in his character,” Matson said of Marler. “I don’t know how many hundreds of times he’s played here but the crowd love him and he loves them.”

Harlequins extended their advantage after Umaga had pulled another penalty wide. They nudged a penalty to the corner and Marler barged to within two metres. Care then spun the ball wide and Huw Jones scored his try after a burst off the shoulder of André Esterhuizen.

Matt Symons lit up the second half with an overhead offload to release Murley for the hosts’ third try. Within three minutes, Esterhuizen had secured the bonus point by trailing Beard’s surge to take a pass from Care. 

In between those scores, Jack Willis replaced Vaea Fifita and, alongside brother Tom, busied himself with a series of effective carries. Tom Willis’ try stirred hope that was quickly extinguished when Tommy Allan offloaded to Louis Lynagh, whose 40-metre route to the line appeared all too easy.

Sam Spink would close the gap with a try that his defiant display deserved and Jack Willis’ pilfer set up one more attack. With the clock in the red, Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen shunted over.

Lee Blackett, the Wasps head coach, rued a frustrating afternoon but saluted the Willis siblings and was grateful for the point. “Today was big for Jack to build that confidence to go again,” he said. “I’m just happy for him.”

Match details

Scoring: 5-0 Beard try, 5-3 Umaga penalty, 10-3 Jones try, 12-3 Edwards try, 17-3 Murley try, 19-3 Edwards conversion, 24-3 Esterhuizen try, 24-8 T Willis try, 24-10 Umaga conversion, 29-10 Lynagh try, 29-15 Spink try, 29-17 Umaga conversion, 29-22 Toomaga-Allen try, 29-24 Umaga conversion. 

Harlequins: T Green; O Beard, H Jones, A Esterhuizen, C Murley (L Lynagh, 54); W Edwards (T Allan, 61), D Care (L Gjaltema, 68); J Marler (S Kerrod, 68) J Walker (S Riley, 61), W Collier (W Louw, 61), M Symons, H Tizard, S Lewies (J Chisholm, 65), L Wallace, A White (T Lawday, 53).

Wasps: J Umaga; P Odogwu, S Spink, R Mills (J Gopperth, 61), J Bassett (M Watson, 72); C Atkinson, D Robson (W Porter); T West (R Hislop, 48), T Cruse (G Oghre, 1), B Alo (J Toomaga-Allen, 48), J Gaskell, E Stooke, V Fifita (J Willis, 46), B Morris (N Carr, 63), T Willis.

Referee: Mr C Maxwell-Keys (RFU).

Attendance: 14,185.