Quins fall short as Bath turn on power

BATH'S bomb squad arrived in the nick of time to haul them out of the mire and secure a semi-final trip to Newcastle on Friday.

- By ROGER PANTING

In the first 20 minutes. Bath were blown apart by the potency of Quins' back-division with poor defensive alignment and tackling contributing to a 28-7 deficit but they knew they still had some real aces yet to play.</p><p>A try before half-time kept Bath in the hunt before five first XV forwards were introduced to batter Quins in a totally one-sided second half as the Londoners folded tamely.

They had no answer to the power of props Beno Obano and Thomas du Toit in the scrums with hooker Tom Dunn and No.8 Jaco Coetzee supplying much needed dynamism to be rewarded with a try apiece.

Bath's assistant coach Andy Robinson said: "Quins played really fast in that opening quarter and were exceptional in taking their chances. We needed to get a foothold and we did with Tom de Glanville's try but then straight away we conceded another.