Max Ojomoh strikes final blow as dogged Bath battle past Harlequins

Rugby has long been a game of contrasting styles. Festival rugby is some people’s idea of heaven; others dismiss it as akin to basketball, all frills no crunch. Twickenham was rocking all right, but far from full for Harlequins’ latest spectacle across the road from their normal home. They played the beautiful rugby for which they are renowned, scoring five tries to delight, but Bath needed this result more and duly took it in a somewhat less frilly manner.

The visitors scored six tries, most of them meaty and prosaic. Three of them came in the last 15 minutes to take the game away from Quins and maintain Bath’s chances of making Europe. Quins’ chances of the playoffs had evaporated the night before with Northampton’s win at Newcastle.

Bath’s tries five and six, by Joe Cokanasiga and Max Ojomoh, were a bit easier on the eye than the others. Their last particularly was fine, Ollie Lawrence sprung through a hole to send over his mate in the centre. In between, Marcus Smith had broken in typically brilliant style to pave the way for Alex Dombrandt’s try, which pulled Quins back to within three, but the artists were well and truly beaten by the hod carriers with something to play for.

Quins’ world fell apart on the half-hour. It might be stretching it to describe either side as playing by then as if their lives depended on it, but to see two yellow cards in as many minutes puts something of a dent into the age-old imperative to win a given game.

The hosts had just wrested back a measure of control. Bath had taken the lead twice in the first quarter, first from Tom Dunn’s finish of a driven line-out, then through a Ben Spencer penalty after Cadan Murley found himself, as ever, on the end of some typically sweeping approach