It is five years since Harlequins appeared in the play-offs. A fifth successive league victory cemented their position in third place with a home encounter to follow against the team immediately below them, Gloucester. They left it late here after taking an early 14-point lead as Bath, for the third time this year, forfeited victory at the very end.
Take away the first 15 minutes and the final five and Quins were largely outplayed by opponents who – with three wins in their previous seven league matches – had lost ground on the top four. Next up is Saracens at home on Friday night with time running out.
Bath were leading by eight points with 10 minutes to go having shown a thirst for victory that enabled them to overcome a sluggish start that saw Chris Robshaw and Joe Marchant, two of 11 players in the two squads who had been called up by the England head coach Eddie Jones in recent years, score tries to reward a start that at one point saw Bath having attempted 52 tackles and their opponents none.
Two Rhys Priestland penalties and an opportunist try by Jonathan Joseph, England’s outside-centre for much of Jones’s time in charge, brought them to within three points when another England man, Mike Brown, passed out off the back of his left hand to Marchant who drew the cover before passing inside to Alex Dombrandt who had another prominent game in attack.
Bath responded before half-time when Nathan Catt finished off a 30-phase move and within 10 minutes of the restart they were ahead through two Priestland penalties. The momentum swing was shown when Dombrandt was held up over the line by Dave Attwood before Quins lost a lineout on halfway and had to resort to a panicky defence when Tom Homer’s kick to the line was chased by the wing Ruaridh McConnochie.
He reached the ball before Nathan Earle, who was wrong-footed by the bounce, but was ruled to have touched it when it was not on the ground and was blown for a knock-on. Undeterred, he quickly set up his side’s third try, breaking through to set up Ross Batty.
It should have been enough but Bath are never more vulnerable than when their lips are about to kiss victory’s chalice. Quins brought on the fly-half Marcus Smith and the centre Francis Saili and they brought a refinement to their side’s attack. If there was an element of fortune about their fourth try, a stray pass ricocheting off Brown’s knee and into the hands of Marchant, their finish was calculated.
They turned down the opportunity of kicking a penalty from 40 metres with three minutes to go to level the scores and opted for an attacking lineout. The ploy had not worked before and it did not here as they lost the ball.
Dave Lewis claimed a try after diving into Bath’s ruck as the ball neared the home line. It was turned down but he was rewarded with a scrum rather than being penalised for entering from the side. Again, Quins bungled their planned move and when Bath had a lineout even they looked to be home. They lost it, Smith sparked a final attack and Saili’s long pass gave Earle the space to dive into the right-hand corner and stun the crowd into silence.
Quins were four seasons in one day are 10 points off second place. “Being at Harlequins is about having fun and being tenacious, tough and resilient,” said their head of rugby, Paul Gustard, someone else who has worked with Jones. They sum up a season in which clubs outside the top two take with one hand and give with the other.
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