Three-peat for Bath
PREMIERSHIP MATCH REPORT: Bath won their third game in a row to move into the top four, downing Harlequins 19-12 at the Rec.
In rainy conditions in the West Country the home side started on the front foot, going ahead on 11 minutes as England man Ruaridh McConnochie crossed the line.
Rhys Priestland added a penalty but was then charged down by in-form Alex Dombrandt, the No.8 easily dotting down to cut the deficit to 8-5.
After the break Marcus Smith converted his own score to put Harlequins in front, but McConnochie doubled his tally and Freddie Burns added a pair of penalties to seal the result.
“He finished his tries really well and was very good in the air,” Bath Director of Rugby Stuart Hooper said.
“There’s a couple of bits for him to work on but it’s great to see him scoring tries and getting down the edges, causing defenders problems.
“If we can put him in more space and even more one on ones, he’s going to score more of those.”
Harlequins head coach Paul Gustard: “The disappointing thing for us was we didn’t do the things we spoke about at half-time, about managing the field better.
“We didn’t do that, the international fly-halves in Rhys Priestland and Freddie Burns started to turn things, found space and found grass, we found bodies.
“We did a lot of defending and it was in the most pretty good, our set-piece was pretty good but we couldn’t translate it to attack.”
The scorers
For Bath:
Tries: McConnochie 2
Pens: Priestland, Burns 2
For Harlequins:
Tries: Dombrandt, Smith
Con: Smith
Yellow card: Brett Herron (Harlequins, 44)
Teams:
Bath: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jackson Willison, 12 Josh Matavesi, 11 Ruaridh McConnochie, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Chris Cook, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Francois Louw (captain), 6 Tom Ellis, 5 Elliott Stooke, 4 Josh McNally, 3 Christian Judge, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Lewis Boyce
Replacements: 16 Tom Doughty, 17 Lucas Noguera, 18 Sam Nixon, 19 Mike Williams, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Max Wright
Harlequins: 15 Aaron Morris, 14 Cadan Murley, 13 Tom Penny, 12 Paul Lasike, 11 Gabriel Ibitoye, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Chris Robshaw (captain), 6 James Chisholm, 5 Tevita Cavubati, 4 Glen Young, 3 Simon Kerrod, 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Santiago Garcia Botta
Replacements: 16 Jack Musk, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Phil Swainston, 19 Dino Lamb, 20 Will Evans, 21 Semi Kunatani, 22 Niall Saunders, 23 Brett Herron
Referee: Tom Foley
Assistant referees: Grag Macdonald & Paul Dix
TMO: David Rose
Match report by @premrugby
