Smith injury news spoil Quins' party
NEWS: Harlequins’ victory celebrations after an impressive 19-13 Premiership win over Bath on Friday were dampened by an injury update on England flyhalf Marcus Smith.
The international No.10 will not play again this year, after suffering an ankle injury during the final year-end Test against South Africa.
Smith went off midway through the second half of England’s 13-27 loss at Twickenham.
He is now set to miss Harlequins’ opening Champions Cup games against South African side the Sharks and French heavyweights Racing 92, plus a Premiership appointment with Bristol at Twickenham on December 27.
But his absence could run well into January, as he is due to have another specialist appointment next week.
England has a pre-Six Nations training camp over the new year period, while their tournament opener is against Scotland on February 4.
“Simply, it is an ankle injury,” Quins head coach Tabai Matson said.
“He had a specialist have a look at him this week, and another one next week.
“He will be out for this month and I think early next year we will get a better prediction of actually how many weeks he will be out for.”
The scorers
For Bath
Try: Butt
Con: Bailey
Pens: Bailey, Francis
For Harlequins
Tries: Dombrandt, Beard, David
Cons: Allan 2
The teams:
Bath: 15 Matt Gallagher, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Will Butt, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Ben Spencer (captain), 8 Josh Bayliss, 7 Miles Reid, 6 Ted Hill, 5 Fergus Lee-Warner, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Valeriy Morozov.
Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Arthur Cordwell, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Will Spencer, 20 Tom Ellis, 21 Max Green, 22 Piers Francis, 23 Richard de Carpentier.
Harlequins: 15 Nick David, 14 Cadan Murley, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Tommy Allan, 9 Danny Care, 8 Alex Dombrandt (captain), 7 Will Evans, 6 Jack Kenningham, 5 Irne Herbst, 4 Dino Lamb, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 George Head, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 George Hammond, 20 Archie White, 21 Lewis Gjaltema, 22 Will Edwards, 23 Lennox Anyanwu.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Anthony Woodthorpe (England), George Selwood (England)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)
