Bath shock the mighty Quins
PREMIERSHIP REPORT: Bath eked out a 21-17 victory over English champions Harlequins for only their second Premiership win of the season.
The victory made it two in a row for bottom-of-the-table Bath who had ended a run of 11 league defeats this season when they beat Worcester in the previous round on January 9.
But since then Bath had lost twice in Europe, and last weekend conceded 62 points at home to Leinster.
Against a Quins team shorn of its England players, Bath repeatedly threatened in the first half, but was unable to take their chances.
They turned round trailing 12-6 to tries at the beginning and end of the half by Dino Lamb and Cadan Murley.
With former England No.8 Nathan Hughes, starting for the first time since joining on loan from Bristol, setting the tone, Bath took control of the contact areas.
Left wing Will Muir turned pressure into points with two tries in the corner.
Harlequins have made a habit of winning games late and replacement flanker George Hammond cut the gap to one point with a counter-attack try in the 73rd minute, but Italy fly-half Tommaso Allan missed the conversion.
Ben Spencer then sealed victory with a late penalty.
“The boys have been through a tough season and we’ve drawn a line,” said Hughes saying the team did not lose heart when pressure did not produce first-half points.
“You’ve got to be patient,” he said. “It’ll come. it’ll come. We rode the wave and it turned around and we managed to get three tries and managed to get the win.”
The scorers
For Bath
Tries: Muir 2
Con: Spencer
Pens: Spencer 3
For Harlequins
Tries: Lamb-Cona, Murley, Hammond
Con: Allan
The teams:
Bath: 15 Semesa Rokoduguni, 14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Will Muir, 10 Max Ojomoh, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 Ewan Richards, 6 Tom Ellis, 5 Mike Williams, 4 Josh McNally (c), 3 D’Arcy Rae, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Arthur Cordwell
Replacements: 16 Tom Doughty, 17 Will Vaughan, 18 Kieran Verden, 19 Will Spencer, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Joe Simpson, 22 Will Butt, 23 Tom Prydie
Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Nick David, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Tommy Allan, 9 Danny Care, 8 Viliami Taulani, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Dino Lamb, 5 Hugh Tizard, 4 Matt Symons, 3 Will Collier, 2 Jack Walker (c), 1 Santiago Garcia Botta
Replacements: 16 Sam Riley, 17 Jordan Els, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 George Hammond, 20 Archie White, 21 Lewis Gjaltema, 22 Oscar Beard, 23 Louis Lynagh
Referee: Tom Foley
Assistant referees: Luke Pearce, Paul Dix
TMO: Sara Cox
