By MG
December 3 2022
A tremendous display by a Quins side down to 13 men earned a well deserved 19-13 win at The Rec. It came as news broke that Marcus Smith injured an ankle on England duty and will be out until the New Year - including missing the "Euro" trip to Natal next week.
Quins will head off to South Africa on the back of four wins, which have got the season back on track and got them firmly in the top three.
It wasn't easy against a fit and hard working home side. The first half belonged to Quins with Alex Dombrandt coming round frtom a ruck to score from close range and and Oscar Beard marking his midfield start with a fine try. Quins pressure eventually opening up space on the left with a long pass from Danny Care finding Beard, who had room on the outside but chose to wrong foot two defenders to go inside and score.
It was 12-3 at the break. However, Will Butt brought Bath back to within two points only for Nick David to smartly cross for Quins.
A Piers Francis penalty for Bath kept things interesting. Bath upped a gear with a spell of pressure on the line which kept the TMO busy as great defence, and lots of bodies, meant that both Tom Dunn and Ollie Lawrence were held up on the line.
Pressuere led to Head and Kenningham finishing work early and the odds against 13 holding out were considerable. However, Bath were eunable to drive over from their penalty catch and drives. Quite heroic.