Bath in sin bin row

BATH head of rugby Johann van Graan hit out at the decision to allow Irne Herbst to return early from the sin bin as Harlequins held on to win 40-36 in their Premiership match at Twickeham Stoop.

Despite his team scoring 33 unanswered points and going home with two losing bonus points, which lifted Bath to second in the table, Van Graan was unhappy with what he saw and rightly so because the controversy surrounding the forward is now likely to run and run.

With Bath beginning their comeback after falling 40-3 behind, Herbst was shown a yellow card by referee Anthony Woodthorpe in the 63rd minute for what should have been a 10-minute spell. But the bearded lock returned to the field after just seven minutes with the officials missing that he hadn’t spent the required period off the field.

In an astonishing conclusion, in which Harlequins wing Louis Lynagh was also shown yellow, the early return of Herbst restored the home side’s numbers and they held on for victory. Premiership Rugby are sure to investigate the incident this week.

‘I flagged it with the referee after the game,’ Van Graan said. ‘There’s not a lot he can do. On the pitch he wasn’t even aware of it. We went through our team manager and we made the fourth official aware. On a yellow card you’re supposed to be off for 10 minutes, not seven.’

At Kingsholm, Magnus Bradbury scored two of five tries as Bristol battled back against Gloucester for a 33-24 bonus-point victory. Josh Hathaway, Santi Carreras and Adam McBurney crossed for Gloucester as they went in at half-time 24-19 ahead.