Premiership: Harlequins 35-45 Bath - Visitors run in six tries at Twickenham

Bath ran in six tries against Harlequins at Twickenham

Bath boosted their chances of European Champions Cup rugby next season by beating Harlequins at Twickenham.

Tries from Tom Dunn, GJ van Velze and Ollie Lawrence gave Bath a 24-21 half-time lead, with Quins' Cadan Murley, Luke Wallace and Marcus Smith scoring.

Lewis Gjaltema put Harlequins ahead before Niall Annett and Joe Cokanasiga crossed for Bath in quick succession.

Alex Dombrandt brought Quins back to within three points but Max Ojomoh sealed victory for the visitors.

Bath move up to ninth in the Premiership, level on points with eighth-placed Bristol, and a point above Gloucester who lost against Sale in Saturday's later kick-off.

Bath finish the campaign against leaders Saracens on 6 May, while Gloucester visit Bristol with the top eight in the table qualifying for Europe's premier competition.

After Dunn was bundled over to open the scoring, Murley became the outright top try scorer in the league as the wing finished off a fine team move for his 14th try of the season.

Wallace put Quins in front following more slick passing across the line but yellow cards to Andre Esterhuizen for a high tackle on Lawrence and Murley for a deliberate knock-on gave Bath a two-man advantage.

Van Velze and Lawrence capitalised on Quins' shortage of numbers but Smith's excellent try in between kept Quins in touch at the break.

The fast-flowing rugby continued in the second half as replacement Gjaltema went over from close range to edge the hosts in front.

However, Bath pulled clear once again as Annett touched down from the back of a maul and Cokanasiga burst through to put them 10 points clear.

Number eight Dombrandt set up a grandstand finish when he bundled over following Smith's excellent break.

But centre Ojomoh made sure there was to be no comeback when he dived for the line to cap a stunning team move.

Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson:

"I don't want to take anything away from them. They scored six tries, that's probably the big lesson for us, six tries and 45 points in your home game is a bit of a catastrophe.

"They took their opportunities, we gave them some opportunities and they took them quite convincingly. I think it hurts more because it was our last home game and it's a bit of a marquee event, so it's gutting.

"I think we hung in there enough [having 13 men for 10 minutes] and we got a bit of momentum in the second half, but things we said we'd try not to do, scrum penalty into a maul penalty into defending our try line, that's their bread and butter and they took those opportunities and punished us for them.

"Although the game was entertaining, we wanted to take it to another level, and we couldn't do that."

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan:

"That was satisfying, it was a top game of rugby. Credit to Harlequins, they stretched us a few times, it was like four points and if they score one more who knows what happens, but credit to our team, we stuck at it.

"We prepped for an 80-minute game, we respect Quins and what they've done so much and we acknowledged in the week that there might be purple patches from their side and I think the thing that I'm proudest about is the fact we stuck to our game, we scored tries in different ways, we reacted to pressure, I think we reacted to the referee very well on both sides of the ball.

"I'll say that all 23 guys were special and the whole group in the way that we prepared for this game. For this playing group and this group of people, what a fascinating memory we'll have in the coming years about today."

Line-ups

Harlequins: Bassett; Lynagh, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Murley; Smith, Care; Marler, Walker, Collier, Lamb, Herbst, Wallace, Evans, Dombrandt.

Replacements: Riley, Baxter, Kerrod, Hammond, Kenningham, Gjaltema, Northmore, David.

Sin bin: Esterhuizen (29), Murley (31)

Bath: Gallagher; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, McConnochie; Bailey, Spencer; Obano, Dunn, Stuart, McNally, van Velze, Hill, Cloete, Reid.

Replacements: Annett, Schoeman, Rae, Spencer, de Carpentier, Green, Francis, Bayliss.

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