Francois van Wyk late show steals it for Bath
Harlequins ………………….. 24pts
Tries: Dombrandt 6, Isgro 16, 37
Conversions: Smith 7, 17, 38
Penalty: Smith 61
Bath ……………………………… 26pts
Tries: Pepper 25, de Glanville 33, du Toit 63, van Wyk 77 Conversions: Russell 26, 34, 64
Bath kept cool when under the cosh and showed real ticker in the second half to beat a Quins team that lost their attacking poise after the break.
Trailing by 10 points in the final quarter Bath had to dig deep on an evening when the 50-50 bounces and decisions had not gone their way but their strong bench started to flex their muscles right on cue and their version of the bomb squad saw them home.
First, Thomas du Toit powered over from short range after good work from young Austin Emens and then with two minutes left du Toit’s front row colleague Francois van Wyk dived in from a yard or less with Marcus Smith and Jack Kenningham unable to stop the huge South African.
Finn Russell nailed the conversion to leave Quins needing a try in the last 60 seconds which proved beyond them as another fine Premiership game came to a rousing conclusion.
First Half
After the high octane fare from Bristol earlier in the day you wondered if this match could compete but in very short order we were up and running.
Quins struck first with Alex Dombrandt, returning from a hand injury, linking telepathically with Smith to ghost through a gap and score from 20 yards out while another who should feature in the Autumn Tests scored their second.
Pumas wing Rodrigo Isgro, making his Quins debut after a busy summer with Argentina, immediately showcased his ability in the air and raw power to connect with a Smith kick pass to extend that lead.
Bath, who had squandered an early chance when Tom de Glanville somehow found a way of not scoring under the posts, needed to score next and they did. Twice.
First, Beno Obano popped a nice short range pass for Guy Pepper to catch and spin his way over while de Glanville made up for his earlier profligacy by making no mistake when presented with an almost identical scoring opportunity courtesy of an exquisite pass from Russell.
As half-time approached Quins upped the tempo again as they sought another score. After storming the line from a lineout Will Porter suddenly decided to move the ball wide where in fairness Bath defended strongly.
However, the ball popped out at the ruck, Isgro claimed possession, took time to assess the situation and then blasted over from seven or eight yards. No force on earth could have stopped him.
Second Half
Quins had looked so dangerous in attack during the first 40 minutes that more tries seemed likely but the game became much cagier after the break and indeed the home side’s only additional score was a penalty from Smith on 60 minutes which did nonetheless stretch the lead to 10 points.
The penalty came after a promising attack from Smith and Northmore which was only stopped by a blatant professional foul – an early tackle on scrum-half Porter – from Pepper.
Quins had oceans of space to the left and even then there was the hint of deliberate knock-on from Bath as Quins played advantage which didn’t get looked at as they came back for Pepper’s misdemeanour.
Somehow a mere three points seemed scant reward for what had transpired.
All credit to Bath for handling the yellow card so well and narrowing the game up during Peppers’s absence until van Wyk applied the coup de grace.
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