Bath begin title defence with comeback win at Quins

Henry Arundell scored Bath's fourth try on his debut for the club

The Prem

Harlequins (17) 31

Tries: W Evans 3, Kenningham, T Green Cons: J Evans 3

Bath (14) 47

Tries: Dunn, Sela, Obano, Arundell 2, Griffin, Underhill Cons: Spencer 5, De Glanville

Reigning champions Bath put on a commanding second-half performance to fight back at Harlequins and begin their title defence with a bonus-point win.

The hosts had made a blistering start to the match with flanker Will Evans scoring a hat-trick inside 30 minutes.

Tom Dunn's reply meant the score was 17-7 when Chandler Cunningham-South was sent to the sin-bin on 33 minutes.

And Bath made the extra player count with tries from Vilikesa Sela and then Beno Obano within two minutes of the restart to take the lead for the first time.

Harlequins lost both hookers Jack Walker and George Turner to injury, meaning the last 26 minutes were played out with uncontested scrums and Bath took full advantage of the imbalance in the Quins pack.

Debutant Henry Arundell scored twice, and Archie Griffin and Sam Underhill also touched down to secure a dominant win, with Jack Kenningham and Tyrone Green crossing the whitewash to earn the home side a bonus point in the second half.

Will Evans scored a hat-trick inside 30 minutes for Harlequins

The hosts showed no sign of rustiness at the beginning of the new Prem season, with Evans scoring twice in the opening eight minutes as Harlequins piled early pressure on the reigning champions, finishing off after long runs from Green and Cadan Murley.

Dunn powered over from a Bath line-out to get the visitors on the board before Evans completed his hat-trick, dotting over after Alex Dombrandt had broken through the line.

Cunningham-South went into the sin-bin with Sela scoring from the tap-and-go five metres out.

Bath came out flying in the second half and scored inside two minutes, with Obano finishing after a stunning run from Arundell.

Having replaced Walker at half-time, Turner had to go off after taking a big hit in a passage of play that saw Ollie Lawrence's try disallowed, with Joe Cokanasiga stepping into touch during the build-up.

The hosts were left with no hookers to call upon and sent on South African prop Jordan Els to see out the game with uncontested scrums.

England back Arundell, playing on the wing in his first appearance, ran into the corner at the end of a flowing team move as Bath took a hold of the game.

Griffin and Underhill came off the bench to add their names to the scoresheet before Arundell got his second of the match, while Kenningham hit back for the hosts and Green scored with the last action of the match.

'We showed composure in the second half' - reaction

Johann van Graan led Bath to their first league title since 1996 last season

Harlequins senior coach Jason Gilmore said:

"We played some really good stuff in that first half as we wanted to be positive and our aim is to get at least a bonus point by scoring four tries in every game.

"We started the second half poorly with a poor kick and chase to gift them a try.

"We then lost two hookers in succession and didn't recover as we lost the aerial battle which resulted in them getting a lot of territory and us being on the wrong side of the referee.

"We are proud that we fought back to get 31 points so we got something out of the game."

On the performance of Will Evans: "He is one of the most underrated players I have ever seen.

"If he was back in Australia he would probably be an international but over here the competition is so hot in the area."

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan said:

"We had a good training week but had a clunky first half as Quins put us under a lot of pressure.

"They pressed at the breakdown and we didn't react quickly enough and were happy just to be only 17-14 down at half-time.

"We showed good composure in the second half by scoring straight away and it was a good performance after the interval to pick up five points as it's never easy coming here.

"Two years ago we were 40-3 down and last year we came back to win late on."

Harlequins: T Green; David, Beard, Kerr, Murley; J Evans, Porter; Baxter, Walker, Williams, Cunningham-South, Treadwell, Kenningham, W Evans, Dombrandt

Replacements: Turner, Els, Streeter, J Green, Carr, M Green, Kolade, Anderson

Sin-bin: Cunningham-South [33]

Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath, Arundell; Ojomoh, Spencer; Obano, Dunn, Sela, Roux, Ewels, Bayliss, Pepper, Reid

Replacements: Tuipulotu, Van Wyk, Griffin, Molony, Hill, Carr-Smith, Harris, Underhill

Referee: Stuart Terheege