A lack of discipline resulting in yellow cards for Strettle and Volley did not help. Those errors started with the game. Having turned over possession after Bath gathered the kick-off, a poor pass from Care was knocked on and possession lost.  A good chip and chase by Tom Williams was knocked on as he tried to retake the ball and was tackled as he did so.  Then a dangerous tackle by Maddock on David Strettle saw the Bath winger shown a yellow card with only five minutes of the match played.

Quins tried to exert pressure with Bath reduced to 14 men and an excellent cross-field kick from Monye gained a lineout on the Bath twenty-two. A knock-on at the line-out and a free kick at the scrum turned over possession and put Bath back on the attack.  Then when Quins had regained possession and were looking dangerous Luscombe lost the ball in a tackle and Berne collected the loose ball and set off hard for the Quins line. Despite almost being caught by Strettle, the offload to Abendanon saw the winger cross for the try.  Barkley missed the conversion to give Bath a 0 – 5 lead after ten minutes.

Quins had the occasional chance to score.  A kick through by Strettle saw the ball just beat him to the dead ball line before he could touch down.  Quins continued to try to exert pressure only to concede a penalty for holding on in the tackle which Barkley kicked to increase the lead to 0 – 8.  A fine up and under from Monye was collected by him but his pass to Luscombe was knocked on.  Then an offence by Bath at a scrum on their twenty-two gave Jarvis the first of six successful penalty kicks to reduce the lead to 3 – 8.

Another kick through by Strettle was treated almost too casually by the Bath defence and in the end the winger was only just beaten to the touch down.  Bath were the stronger at te breakdown and turned over possession more than once.  Then a break from Cheeseman, who had replaced Perry after only fifteen minutes, saw Beattie carry the move forward and put Abendanon in for his second try.  Once again the conversion attempt by Barkley failed and the lead increased to 3 -13 after twenty-eight minutes.

A free kick to Bath for a delayed lineout throw saw another fine break and Abendanon almost score again but a tackle just short of the line saw him knock on and the opportunity squandered.  Then a yellow card for Strettle for a dangerous tackle reduced Quins to 14 men with ten minutes remaining of the first half.  Bath’s attack again broke down as they were penalised for holding on in the tackle and danger was averted by a good kick from Jarvis to touch on the halfway line.

As Quins increased their attack, particularly driving round the fringes, two penalties, first for coming in at the side and the second for a hand in the ruck improved by a further ten metres for dissent, saw Jarvis kick successfully from 35 metres and 45 metres as the latter kick and then go in off the right-hand post. 

Quins had reduced the deficit to 9 – 13 when in stoppage time, with Bath almost on the Quins line, Volley’s professional foul earned him a yellow card and Barkley’s successful penalty kick left Bath leading 9 -16 at half-time.

Bath started the second half briskly and made good ground into the Quins twenty-two.  A break by their backs saw the final pass to Abendanon go forward and the winger spilled the ball on the line in any event.  The blood replacement for Strettle saw Skinner sent on to strengthen the pack and when later Strettle returned it was Tom Guest that was pulled off and Skinner continued. Now the penalties started to be awarded against the visitors and after seven minutes of the half Bath went offside deep in their own twenty-two to give Jarvis an easy three points.

Four minutes later another penalty for an offence at the scrum gave Jarvis another successful kick at goal to make the score 15 -16 and only a few minutes later following their stealing of the Bath lineout and a good break from Abbott another penalty allowed Jarvis to kick Quins into the lead for the first time in the match after a quarter of an hour of the second half.  It did not last, however, as almost immediately Quins were penalised inside their own half and Barkley’s kick regained the lead at 18 – 19.

Bath were exerting considerable pressure at the breakdown and gaining much more ball although Jarvis was kicking tactically to push them back.  A good break from Tom Williams saw him almost through but Bath turned the ball over and their counter-attack foundered when the winger was bundled into touch.  Quins made a number of substitutions with So’oialo replacing Care, Nebbett replacing Ward and Kohn for Spanghero. On twenty-eight minutes Jarvis had another penalty kick from about thirty metres but this time missed his target and was almost immediately replaced by Mehrtens.

Quins worked hard when in possession of the ball picking up and driving round the fringes and eventually getting the ball out to Monye but despite his strength he was bundled into touch.  Quins again stole the resulting line-out and resumed their driving round the fringes and Mehrtens was back in the pocket looking for the drop goal opportunity.  It never came.  So’oialo’s pass went high above Mehrtens’ head so that he could not hold the ball and Bath cleared to touch in Quins’ half. Just to add to the misery Quins lost the line-out and had to work very hard to regain possession.

As time was running out Quins were attacking with every man involved when the ball squirted out of a ruck on the Bath side and the rapid counter-attack found an overlap on the right and Maddock went over in the corner for the try.  The conversion attempt missed and the final whistle blew with the score of 18 – 24.

So a bonus point leaves Quins two points behind Bath in the pool table and renders next week’s match even more important.  But they will have to play better than they did in this match.  They lacked real penetration and were turned over far too many times at the breakdown. Missed tackles and unforced errors did nothing to assist their cause and two yellow cards merely added to the burden.

After the match, Director of Rugby Dean Richards said he was very disappointed.  “We gave ourselves too much to do after the first half.  We conceded ground around the breakdown which really p****d me off and as a result Walsh had a field day and made it very difficult for us.  We were the victims of our own defensive frailties and that is unusual because in the last few months we have improved our defence immeasurably.”

“To concede three tries in a game is completely unacceptable,” he continued.  “Next week gives us the opportunity to right the wrong.  It would be fair to say that we played at about 60% of our potential today.”  He went on, “Not scoring a try out there today is a concern.  More so when you have players like Luscombe and Monye and Williams among others out there.  That is the concern.”

Asked if this tournament was important he said, “Yes. It is very important from (a) the business point of view; (b) the Club point of view and (c) from the point of view of the players getting the opportunity to go forward to the Heineken Cup.  It is not rocket science to work that out, is it?”

Asked if the team was missing Jordan Turner-Hall, he accepted that he added a bit of power in the centre.  “When one looks at the Bath back line, they have a certain amount of bulk”, he added             .

Asked about the injuries of various players he said, “Mike Brown is recovering from a groin injury and hopefully will be back next week at some stage in some capacity.  Whether he will be playing or not, we will have to see.  Andre was unavailable this week.  Mike Ross wasn’t selected because of previous performances.  Olly Kohn was getting over a knee injury.  These are all bits and pieces out there.  Andy Gommersall tweaked his back during the week and would probably have started.  They all add up.  But at the same time Bath had a lot of injuries too.”

“Playing with a man short for a quarter of the game doesn’t help at all. Paul Volley made a judgment call there [when he committed the offence that saw him shown a yellow card] and I’ll stick with that.  With Dave Strettle sin-binned, we got ourselves into a position whereby Volley thought he ought to do that.  What is annoying is how we got ourselves into that position in the first place.”

On the subject of the referee, “We had Eric Darriere in Connacht.  We thought we know how he refereed, but he did it differently today compared with how he did it in Connacht.  He allowed Bath to come round in the fringes which caused problems. Instead of coming through the gate at the back, they were coming in at the sides.  You have to play to the referee but we found that very difficult to cope with in the first half.  We tidied up our ball presentation in the second half and made it a little bit clearer, a little bit more obvious and we got the penalties.  It was after half time that it became cleaner.”

Asked why Adrian Jarvis was replaced when he was, Dean said “Adrian was tired. He had taken a bang on the head.”  On the subject of squad injuries he said “We have a few long term injuries.  Chris Robshaw is out for the rest of the season with an ACL injury.  Jordan Turner-Hall will be out for the next few weeks.  Lambert and Rogers are back. We are starting to get all our boys back.  Jordan just took a bang to his shoulder and we are waiting for it to settle down.  I do not like pushing people back too early.”

He went on: Looking at our squad, Abbott wants to get back in the England team and has a point to prove as does Hal Luscombe for Wales.  Adrian Jarvis does extremely well for us at fly half.  He has come on by leaps and bounds.  Andy Gommersall is playing extremely well.  Will Skinner,  when he came on today, showed why I brought him down here from Leicester.”

“With the amount of opportunities we had, we should have scored a couple of tries” About Andrew Mehrtens he said “ I though he played extremely well when he came on.  His passing is excellent and he gave us go forward we really needed.  He played the way the game should be played.”

Finally when asked about the forthcoming series of fixtures he gave the classic reply “We’ll take each game as it comes!  I’ve been waiting all afternoon to say that to you.” he added amid general laughter as he ended the press conference.

He did not get away without having to deal with the vacant England coach’s job and was asked about his being reported as saying that if he was approached he would listen.  He denied having said what was reported.  He said “What I did say was that, like anybody, it is a dream job but at the same time while I might listen, it would take a hell of a lot to wrench me away from Harlequins at this particular time.  I am very settled here and from that point of view there is no reason why I should move.”

NEC Harlequins: T Williams; D Strettle, H Luscombe, S Abbott, U Monye (G Duffy 80min); A Jarvis (A Mehrtens 68min), D Care (S So’oialo 61min); C Jones, T Fuga, L Ward (R Nebbett 61min), J Evans, N Spanghero (O Kohn 61min), T Guest (W Skinner 50min), P Volley (capt), N Easter

Bath: M Perry (T Cheeseman 13min); J Maddock, E Fuimaono-Sapolu, O Barkley, N Abendanon; S Berne (C Malone 75min), N Walshe; D Barnes, L Mears, L Ovens, P Short (R Fidler 75min), D Grewcock, A Beattie, J Scaysbrook (J Faamatuainu 46min), I Feaunati (capt)

Scorers:
Harlequins:
Pens: Jarvis (6)

Bath:
Tries: Abendanon (2), Maddock
Pens: Barkley (3)

Yellow cards: Harlequins: Strettle (32min), Volley (40min) Bath: Maddock (5min)

Referee: E Darriere (France)

Attendance: 10,572

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon