Bath v Harlequins: Five takeaways as ‘sumptuous’ Finn Russell leads ‘inexorable march’ into the Premiership playoffs
Our takeaways from yet another Bath victory at the Rec.
Following Bath’s 47-28 victory over Harlequins at the Rec, here are our five takeaways from the Premiership clash.
Top Line
Bath continued their inexorable march into the Premiership playoffs with yet another convincing win as they saw off visiting Harlequins 47-28.
Seven tries for the hosts came from Joe Cokanasiga, Ted Hill, Ross Molony, Will Muir, Max Ojomoh and prop Francois Van Wyk as Bath unleashed a powerful first-half performance to blow Quins off the pitch in the early encounters.
Nevertheless, Quins rallied and managed to grab a crucial bonus point as they hit back with four tries of their own from Luke Northmore, Titi Lamositele, Fin Baxter, and Sam Riley.
The result leaves Bath riding high on the table with 56 points and 11 wins, with Harlequins lying just below the playoff line in fifth, on 37, hoping they can do just enough to get themselves over the line after a disappointing season.
The Game in Numbers
With Quins surprisingly dominating both territory and possession, the biggest difference between these two teams was their efficiency in the red zone. Bath made 17 22 entries from 6% less possession than Quins, yet converted their chances with a near 50% success rate, a quite remarkable return on their efforts.
Quins made only ten entries from their superior possession – they struggled to get past the power of the Bath primary D and the turnover work of the host back row who dominated both collision and turnover stats.
Above all, Johann van Graan will be most delighted with the discipline numbers; his team conceded only six transgressions, with Quins being penalised on 12 occasions with two yellow cards, key differences at this level.
With Alfie Barbearry topping the carry charts with 14 thundering rumbles, and Player of the Match Will Muir amassing the most metres run (119) it was a great afternoon from the Blue, Black and White, one that demonstrated their attention to detail, depth and sheer professionalism as they move forward towards the playoffs.
Quins Sluggish
Harlequins were so slow out of the blocks that you might wonder if half of their team had been left on the M4.
Static in defence, they were opened up time and time again, folding around the 13 and 14 channels as Bath made hay with some great passing and interplay from Finn Russell and Cam Redpath. The tries for Ted Hill and Joe Cokanasigna both came due to the edge pressure Bath’s attack applied, and to compound matters, the visitors played 26 minutes of the first 20 with a man in the bin as first Isgró and then Marcus Smith received a card off Anthony Woodthorpe.
It wasn’t only defence; the difference in contact was marked. 9 turnovers versus four in Bath’s favour tells a tale of the breakdown, but it was in the collision where the biggest difference was seen- with Bath managing a whopping 122 post-contact metres against 34 made by Quins.
It got better for the visitors and their bonus point just about keeps them in contention for the playoffs, but Harlequins will be taking a hard and long look over just how cold they started in this match.
Aerial Dominance
Bath had dominance in so many areas of this game, particularly in their opening salvos.
At the heart of their gameplan was massive aerial dominance and control of the drop zone behind, with both wings, Joe Cokanasigna and Will Muir gaining a considerable advantage over their opponents.
Muir in particular was outstanding; his ability to challenge with both hands for a clean catch is one of the key skills of modern wingers and the Bath man’s prowess created a try for himself, and a lot of opportunity for those around him.
With Joe Cokanasigna also firing aerially, the opening moments saw a horrible but wholly accidental clash of heads between the Bath man and Rodrigo Isgró, the Quins’ left wing. The clash of heads might have been Isgró’s fault and he was rightly yellow-carded, but was unable to return to the pitch after clearly coming off worse in the collision.
Isidro’s sevens specialism as an ‘aerialist’ meant that Quins lost their key man in that aerial battle and with the form of Muir and the loss of the Isgró, the kicking game very much went Bath’s way- down to the brilliance of their challenge and commitment in the chase.
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Test Watch
There’s a lot to play for in the closeout of the Premiership season with both Lions and summer tours on offer for many of the players in this match.
At ten, Finn Russell showed a variety of passing that was simply sumptuous. Playing tight to the gain line his handling trickery sent all sorts of demons into the Quins’ defence; some were long and early passes, some were exquisite workarounds with Cam Redpath, some were taken hard and direct into the Quins’ defence to commit numbers. It was a wonderful display of the fly-half arts from Russell and he’s timing his form run perfectly in time for his Lions tour.
In the back-row, Jack Kenningham for Quins and both Miles Reid, Ted Hill and Guy Pepper for Bath all had their moments of excellence. Reid is one of those players that you simply cannot believe has never been capped and his form for Bath this season has been good enough for him to be hopeful of a tour with England this summer. With Hill already in the England squad and Pepper in the A Squad, there’s little doubt that all four have outstanding chances of making the plane to Argentina.
At eight, there was a lot of bang and bosh from both Cunningham-South and Barbeary, but you sometimes get the feeling that the Bath man makes the hard metres when it matters, rather than the eyecatching metres that don’t. Cunningham-South offers so many other attributes – a towering lineout presence and superb over the ball, but it’s yet to be seen if he’ll be heading to Buenos Aries or Brisbane come June.
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