Blackadder ‘focuses on the living’ after Bath injury list hits 21

was marred by hooker Tom Dunn suffering a suspected broken ankle.

Dunn, one of Bath’s most impressive performers this season, caught his ankle in the turf when gathering a restart and is expected to miss the rest of the season. So too is Jack Walker, another hooker, who fractured his foot in training last week.

“We just can’t get a break,” Blackadder said. “I have never been in a team with so many injuries but we just have to focus on the living.”

The latest setbacks bring Bath’s injury toll to a scarcely credible 21, with just eight backs available. So Blackadder handed first Premiership starts to academy products Rory Jennings and Harry Davies.

Even though Matt Banahan, Robbie Fruean and Ben Tapuai are due to return, Blackadder says the impact goes beyond simple match-day availability. “It is not just about the playing, it is about the preparation and training,” he said. “We can’t prepare properly for games.”

Bath still engineered a victory guided by the imperious scrumhalf Kahn Fotuali’i, with Rhys Priestland kicking 17 points and Max Clark scoring their sole try. Harlequins will feel they should have come away with something, having been the better side for most of the contest. Yet they were unable to make it count, despite tries from Marland Yarde and Tim Visser.

They too are down to the bare bones. John Kingston, their director of rugby, estimates 20 absentees, including a sizeable international contingent. Dave Ward, a hooker playing at openside, and Matt Hopper, at inside centre, were out of position on Saturday. Owen Evans is their only available recognised loosehead prop and even he is carrying an injury.

Kingston said. “It is not so much the loss of the international players that causes the problem. It is when you have players in those positions who you are expecting to step up. All of these players are unavailable.”