QUINS LOSE AT BATH: Bath Rugby 14- 3 Harlequins

There was an aura of disappointment about Harlequins and their supporters at the Recreation Ground where the home side prevailed by 14 points to 3 in a dour, physical contest illuminated by a single, solo try of undoubted brilliance from Bath centre Joseph.

Disappointment there certainly was in the result. Disappointment there was too with the refereeing performance of Martin Fox  who did not appear to use the recent rule changes at the scrum to prevent the Bath pack from pushing long before the ball was put in and feeding into the second row went unpunished.  His performance left an angry Conor O’Shea to comment “I thought the crowd  refereed the game very well.  He gave them two easy penalties and he turned down a blatant try for us as well.  Why did he not go to the TMO, I don’t know. He went for everything else.  We had a player sin-binned after the TMO.”

There was disappointment, too, at Harlequins inability to establish any control or to retain possession of the ball.   Three simple penalties allowed Ford to kick Bath into a nine point lead before Evans took three points from a similar opportunity.  Quins were fortunate that thereafter Ford missed with four successive kicks at goal.  They had two further chances but quickly tapped penalties in search of a greater score were well defended and ultimately failed to produce points.

A yellow card for Charlie Walker just before the interval for a late and dangerous tackle on the Bath full-back helped Bath maintain control and eventually left a gap through which Joseph waoul scoe his try with a fifty metre run to the left corner from a Bath lineout.  Ford failed with the conversion attempt.

There was much attacking intent from both sides but also good defence and loss of the ball in contact.  Quins continued to batter at the door without success..  With about five minutes remaining a cacth and drive from a five metre lineout appeared to have driven Tom Guest over under a pile of bodies for a certain try. Without reference to the television match official the referee decided the ball had been held up.  Bath won the subsequent scrum and Quins had no further opportunities.  Disappointing is the word.

Bath A Watson, H Agulla, J Joseph, K Eastmond (Devoto, 71), M Banahan, G Ford, P Stringer (M Roberts, 60), P James (N Catt, 60), R Webber (E Guinazu, 73), A Perenise (JP Orlandi, 71), S Hooper, D Attwood (Day, 60), M Garvey, F Louw, C Fearns (L Houston, 68).
Harlequins M Brown, C Walker, M Hopper, T Molenaar, S Smith (O Lindsay-Hague, 68), N Evans, K Dickson, J Marler (M Lambert, 67), D Ward, P Doran Jones (K Sinckler, 63), C Matthews (N Kennedy, 60) G Robson, L Wallace (T Guest, 40), C Robshaw, N Easter. Sin bin Walker 39.
Referee M Fox (RFU)