Muir sparks Bath comeback to sink Quins
Att: 13,946
If the recent nervy win over Worcester helped to stop the rot, then this triumph over the defending Gallagher Premiership champions Harlequins was a moment for Bath, after so much pain this season, to truly smile again.
With 21 players unavailable and having won just once in this campaign, this was a victory full of character and physicality, topped off by two tries in the corner by Will Muir.
Former England No8 Nathan Hughes arrived at the club this week, but was soon out there rearranging rib cages. His loan from Bristol is meant to be short-term, but on this evidence, Bath might not let the player of the match leave.
“Nath’s a 25-cap international and you can see why. He’s one of ours for a while now and has brought great energy to the group,” said Bath head coach Neal Hatley. “Defensively we’re getting better, our scrum improved massively. After last weekend [losing to Leinster 64-7] which was tough, all the changes, I’m just so proud of everybody.”
Harlequins, for once, ran out of late magic, having snatched victories at the death during the previous two weeks against Cardiff Blues and Castres. Breakdown discipline as well as struggles under the high ball – with Tyrone Green regularly hounded – hurt them.
“We didn’t have the ball enough and what underpinned that was losing the aerial battle poorly tonight,” conceded their head coach Tabai Matson. “I don’t know how many times we dropped it or had a turnover in that first ruck. We just fed them. It was a 16-eight penalty count against us and away from home, no ball, you’re asking for trouble.”
Harlequins dominated early on, racking up four successive scrum penalties short of Bath’s line and another for hands in ruck, only for Bath to somehow survive. Once Bath did win a penalty after a long spell of defence, their kick to touch was missed and Harlequins countered, Tommaso Allan’s quick pass putting Nick David into space with a waiting Dino Lamb on his outside cruising over to score.
Given the visitors’ dominance you would have expected a Bath player to pick up the first yellow card, but it was Green who saw yellow for a deliberate knock-on blocking Semesa Rokoduguni’s pass.
With Cameron Redpath’s recent return, at least Bath have a spark again. It will not be a shock to see him involved with Scotland against England next week, with one break cutting Harlequins open only for his kick to elude Muir and find touch.
Deserving some points from a spell of good pressure, Ben Spencer knocked over two quick penalties to cut Harlequins’ lead to just a point at 7-6. Cadan Murley then scored in the corner after Harlequins created an overlap. It was a brutal blow for Bath, trailing 12-6 at half-time.
How would Bath respond? Well, not like a side who were short on confidence. Max Ojomoh, filling in at fly-half in his first game there since the age of 16 with four options ahead of him absent, fizzed a pass wide to Muir but the winger did all the rest, beating three defenders to score in the corner. Spencer’s excellent conversion from the touchline gave Bath the lead for the first time.
This was Bath’s best passage of play by some distance in a torrid campaign, but they had to make it count. Ewan Richards was ruled to be held up over the line but Bath then found room out wide, Muir going over for his second.
Hughes departed to the kind of reception you would hear for a player with over 100 appearances rather than one, but a missed penalty from Spencer felt crucial with Bath’s lead at only six points.
When Green broke to put George Hammond over in the corner, the script felt familiar – another late Harlequins win. But Allan missed his conversion, leaving the hosts ahead by a point. Another scrum penalty against Harlequins for wheeling, knocked over by Spencer, allowed Bath to exhale.