Earle crashes over to let Quins lord it in third
NATHAN Earle scored a last minute try to cement Harlequins’ third place in the Premiership table.
With the clock firmly in the red, Bath looked home and dry as they threw into a line-out on their own 22 but they lost it for Quins to attack and Earle forced his way past Cooper Vuna to score.
Bath’s director of rugby, Todd Blackadder said: “It’s all about execution under pressure and over and over you have to do the basics.”
After leading 14-0 and 21-11 at various stages in the game, Quins would have been gutted to lose but their pack wilted badly in a 30 minute period around the interval when they shipped 18 unanswered points.
Defeat would have been be rough justice on their young back row star, Alex Dombrandt, who at times seemed to playing Bath on his own.
He was instrumental in all of his side’s first half tries and, midway through the second half, he nearly created another when he charged down a clearance, kicked ahead and then fed James Horwill, who dropped the scoring pass.
Dombrant had good support from the evergreen Chris Robshaw with Mike Brown and two-try Joe Marchant the pick of the backs.
Jonathan Joseph looked sharp for Bath but it was their forwards who got them back into contention. Zach Mercer was at the forefront of their effort with good support from Nathan Catt and Elliot Stooke.
Dave Attwood led out Bath on his 150th appearance for the club but his side certainly didn’t get the start they wanted.
First Quins nicked the kick-off to batter the Bath line with a series of relentless drives, which culminated in Robshaw forcing his way over, and then Dombrandt capitalised on a handling error to kick ahead for Marchant to pick up and score.
Quins suffered a setback when Charlie Mulchrone departed with concussion before Rhys Priestland put the hosts on the scoreboard with a penalty.
That score seem to galvanise Bath with Ruaridh McConnochie just foiled by a good tackle from Brown before Freddie Burns’ clean break put the Quins defence on the back foot for Joseph to take advantage and coast over.
Priestland kicked his second penalty before Quins scored their third try, the best of the day. A brilliant off-load from Brown drew in two defenders to send Marchant into space and leave the centre with the task of feeding Dombrandt for the simple run-in.
At that stage, it looked bleak for Bath but Catt drove over to reward a succession of forward drives to leave his side trailing 21-16 at the interval.
Priestland kicked two penalties in quick succession as the Bath pack took control before a brilliant run from McConnochie set up a try for replacement Ross Batty.
Quins looked down and out but Kiwi centre Francis Sailli and Brown combined to set up a second try for Marchant before Earle’s late effort broke Bath’s hearts.