The opening exchanges saw Bath controlling much of the play and they had the first opportunity to trouble the scorer with a very long penalty kick from Barkley after eight minutes. Seven minutes later and the first time Quins had any territory Bath lost their defensive discipline, with Grewcock punished for handling in a ruck, and Adrian Jarvis slotted home his kick to even the scores at 3-3.

This score encouraged the home side to attack the Bath line and suddenly the visitors started to show elements of panic but their front row won a vital scrum against the head some 15 metres from their line to snuff out the danger. With Flatman and Bell playing together for the first time since October 2006, this crucial scrum overhaul highlighted what they can still contribute to the Bath cause. However their lengthy absence from first team games was exposed at times later in the game.

Just before the half-hour mark an almighty fight broke loose just as Bath were driving towards the Quins' try-line. It started with two players fighting on the edge of a ruck and before the referee realised what was going on most of the players were hitting out at one another. The end result was a yellow card for Tani Fuga and a penalty for Bath. Barkley's kick made the score 3-6. However Bath conceded a penalty in their own quarter as they tried to counter attack from the re-start to allow the home side back in to the game: 6-6.

With six minutes remaining Bath conceded a third penalty when the front rows collapsed but the strong wind came to the aid of the visitors as Jarvis was short with his kick.

Bath trudged off at half-time knowing they had played poorly in the first 40 minutes. Despite keeping the score to 6-6 the visitors failed to dominate any aspect of play, allowing Harlequins to attack their try-line too often. Bath lost four line-outs in first half and, together with conceding two penalties for front row binding infringements the big men will have got a rocket from Steve Meehan.

Part of the problem may have stemmed from the conditions being very windy which convinced the Bath backs to kick too much of the ball up-field. However the coaches would have expected someone with the experience of Olly Barkley to realise that Bath  needed to keep more ball in hand so they could take the weather out of their attacking equations.

Bath started the second half understanding how difficult they would find playing in to the wind as both Berne and Barkley struggled to clear their line in the opening moments. Bath conceded a penalty 35 metres in front of their posts after 46 minutes which enabled Jarvis to make the score 9-6. Bath hit back immediately with a penalty of their own after Quins entered a ruck from the side: 9-9. As soon as he got his side back in to the match, Barkley put his side in trouble when he tried to clear his lines with a kick only to see it ricochet against a Quins' attacker.

Fortunately the home team conceded a penalty through crossing when they were taking advantage of Barkely's error but Bath couldn't benefit to any extent as they too "crossed" to concede a penalty in front of their posts, making the score 12-9.

Within moments Quins scored the opening try after they had turned over Bath ball on half-way. Monye attacked up-field and fed inside to Keogh who hacked the ball forward. Danny Care chased to score. The conversion took the score to 19-9.

Inside the last ten minutes Bath suddenly woke up and started to play as though they wanted to win. A series of attacks forced the home side to concede several penalties but instead of opting for kicks at goal Bath chose to keep their momentum going by using line-outs to move forward. Unfortunately the ball was lost in tackle a few feet from the Quins' try line and it seems any hope was gone.

Bath then thought they'd scored as Matt Banahan chased through the Quins' defence but referee Richards adjudged Crockett to have impeded a homeside tackler earlier in the move.

A late Jarvis penalty secured the win for Harlequins but Bath grabbed a losing bonus point with a try from Claassens with the final play of the game.

 This was a poor performance from a team challenging for Premiership honours and the coaching staff will want the players to put this behind them so they can focus positively on next week's match-up against London Irish.

Referee: Dean Richards

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