Match Centre: Bath 13-19 Harlequins

Bath Rugby 13-19 Harlequins, The Recreation Ground

Harlequins have extended their winning streak as they edged out Bath Rugby 19-13 in the latest round of the Gallagher Premiership at The Recreation Ground on Friday.

This is sixth win for Harlequins from nine matches as they climb to the third place in the table while Bath are at eighth position after losing their sixth game.

Harlequins took just five minutes to open their account as skipper Alex Dombrandt dived under the post after collecting an offload from Danny Care and Tommaso Allan kicked the conversion to make it 0-7 before Bath responded through Orlando Bailey's penalty goal in the 12th minute.

The Quins almost doubled their tally as Oscar Beard making his first league start dotted down. Allan's missed conversion meant the visitors had a lead of 3-12 at the end of the opening half courtesy a couple of missed penalty chances from Bailey around the half-hour mark.

Bath were the quickest to get off the block in the second half as Will Butt replicated some of the magic he showed against Leicester scoring their opening try but this time Bailey got the kicking right as the gap came down to two points.

The Quins responded back with Nick David touching down after collecting a swift pass from Care and Allan's conversion increased the lead to 10-19 before Piers Francis with a penalty of his own brought the difference down to six points.

Tom Dunn thought he scored Bath's second try but was ruled out by the TMO spotting a Quins arm under the ball. With 10 minutes left in the game, Ben Spencer entered to win his 50th cap and despite a couple of close calls from a desperate Bath side, the Quins held on to their lead with both George Head and Jack Kenningham sin-binned in the closing stage.

Team line up:

Bath: Gallagher; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath, Butt; Bailey, Spencer; Morozov, Dunn, Rae, Attwood, Lee-Warner, Hill, Reid, Bayliss.

Reserves: Annett, Cordwell, Jonker, Spencer, Ellis, Green, Francis, De Carpentier.

Harlequins: David; Murley, Beard, Esterhuizen, Bassett; Allan, Care; Marler, Walker, Louw, Lamb, Herbst, Kenningham, Evans, Dombrandt

Reserves: Head, Baxter, Kerrod, Hammond, White, Gjaltema, Edwards, Anyanwu