Bath scrape past Quins

James (L) and Evans: Big points haul

Bath gave their hopes of Heineken Cup qualification a major boost with a 19-15 victory over Harlequins at the Rec.

South African half-back pairing Michael Claassens and Butch James combined to score all of the hosts' points as they leapfrogged Quins to go sixth in the table.

Claassens grabbed the only try of the contest 11 minutes in, finishing off one of the few fluent moves in a stop-start match.

All Harlequins' points were scored via the boot of fly-half Nick Evans, but the away side came up short despite a strong finish.

Bath were forced to make a late change as David Flatman had to be replaced by Nathan Catt at loosehead prop.

Danger

And the hosts were on the back foot in the opening stages before a towering mark by Matt Banahan cleared the danger.

Bath then began to press forward and took the lead when Shontayne Hape burst through the Quins defence, found support from Skirving and Claassens was on hand to finish off, with James adding the extras.

The visitors responded with another spell of pressure and reduced the deficit on 18 minutes when Evans knocked over a simple penalty after Bath were penalised for offside.

The match became more and more attritional as the first half wore on, with both defences holding firm as the tackles piled in, but at the cost of penalties.

Evans brought Quins to within one point on 26 minutes before James gave Bath breathing room again with a 40-metre angled kick shortly afterwards.

The visitors forced two more infringements around the tackle area but the former All Black fly-half converted only one of the attempts, in the 34th minute.

Penalties

Bath therefore held a 10-9 advantage at the half-time interval but increased it after the break as James slotted two long-range penalties between the posts.

Evans then added another three points to his tally on 52 minutes, with Bath conceding after trying to run out from the 22.

The visitors came close to crossing the try-line when Chris Robshaw broke clear on the hour mark but was hauled down by Peter Short.

Quins were given further impetus when Sam Vesty was yellow carded for spoling the ball in the ruck, with Evans kicking his sixth penalty to make it a one-point game again.

However, another successful 40-metre attempt from James made it 19-15 in Bath's favour and the hosts managed to fend off Quins' charge in the closing stages to seal the win.