Harlequins (9) 21
Tries: Turner-Hall, Jones Cons: Evans Pens: Evans 3

Bath (9) 14
Tries: Faamatuainu Pens: James 3

Quins number eight Tom Guest gets to grip with Bath's Stuart Hooper

Harlequins denied Bath the chance to go top of the Premiership as they came from behind to secure victory.

All the first-half points came from the boots of fly-halves Nick Evans and Butch James as three penalties apiece made it 9-9 at the interval.

Bath went ahead when Jonny Faamatuainu scored the first try of the match but Quins levelled after 63 minutes through Jordan Turner-Hall's try.

And Ceri Jones plunged over with 10 minutes left to lift Quins into fourth.

Two penalties apiece from James and Evans made it 6-6 after 12 minutes and Evans then spurned the chance to edge Quins ahead as the former All Black missed a simple penalty.

When James was offered a similar chance just before the half-hour mark the South African World Cup-winning fly-half made no mistake to give Bath a 9-6 lead.

But the hosts soon pulled level through Evans's third penalty after Chris Robshaw was upended by Faamatuainu.

The tackle sparked a melee but the Samoa back-rower escaped a card and Evans levelled matters at the break.

Bath finally scored the first try of the match after 50 minutes when James and Zimbabwe-born hooker Pieter Dixon were both heavily involved in the build-up before Faamatuainu went over.

James missed the conversion and it took Quins nearly 15 minutes to get back on terms.

They finally managed to gain some reward for their pressure when Turner-Hall cut inside to finish off a sweeping move from right to left and although Evans could not convert the scores were level at 14-14.

Tom Guest then took a quick tap and when Andy Gomarsall produced a cute reverse pass, prop Jones was on hand to score the winning try.

Evans added the conversion and Harlequins withstood a late Bath assault to secure the points.

Harlequins boss Dean Richards:
"The England guys who are coming back will have to perform because the guys who are there are playing well.

"It was an intense battle. It was always one of those games which would come down to the last few minutes.

"I was comfortable with the fact we won against a side that was around the top and playing some good quality rugby."

Bath head coach Steve Meehan:
"Harlequins played some good field rugby but we never gave ourselves the opportunity to force our dominance on the game.

"The penalty count was 14-7 or something like that and when it's that one-sided it's difficult to get any momentum into your game and then we coughed up the ball too often and too early in our attacking play.

"I'm not going to blame players for the effort they put in - I thought the effort was fantastic right through to the 80 minutes - but there were some confusing decisions out there.

"I am at a loss to explain some of the things which went against us so there will certainly be some interesting conversations take place between ourselves and those that are in charge this week."

Harlequins: Brown; Stegmann, Barry, Turner-Hall, T Williams; N Evans, Gomarsall; Jones, Fuga, Ross, Percival, J Evans, Robshaw, Skinner, Guest.

Replacements: Poluleuligaga for Gomarsall (78).

Not Used: Brooker, Lambert, Robson, Mcmillan, Masson, Malone.

Bath: Abendanon; Stephenson, Cheeseman, Hape, Banahan; James, Claassens; Flatman, Dixon, Bell, Harrison, Short, Hooper, Faamatuainu, Browne.

Replacements: Berne for Cheeseman (78), Fuimaono-Sapolu for Hape (67), Bemand for Claassens (69), Hawkins for Dixon (73), Ion for Bell (63), Beattie for Harrison (63), Scaysbrook for Faamatuainu (73).

Att: 12178

Ref: M Fox (RFU).

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