Bath cruise to win against injury-hit Quins
The gulf between the sides opened up through the second half as Bath ended with eight tries, including two for Santiago Carreras, while Quins were down to the bare bones as Luke Northmore, Caden Murley, Nick David and Jarrod Evans joined their growing injury list. Tom Carr-Smith, Tom Dunn, Ewan Richards, Josh Bayliss, Guy Pepper and Bernard Van der Linde all scored for Bath, with Bryn Bradley and Kieran Treadwell picking up the only two tries for the visitors. The result means Bath remain a point behind league leaders Saints - who secured a late win over Exeter earlier on Saturday - with five games to go, while Harlequins remain ninth.
Hamer-Webb grabs five tries as Tigers thrash Newcastle Bristol thump Gloucester to narrow gap to top four Quins released a remarkable list of 27 players out injured in the days before the match and it got worse when centre Northmore failed a late fitness test and was replaced in the starting XV. Bath had their own problems, with captain Ben Spencer pulling out with a shoulder injury before kick-off. But squad rotation and strength in depth has long been the reigning champions' biggest asset.
They started on the front foot and Carreras intercepted a pass to sprint from his own 22 to score by the posts two minutes in. Harlequins retaliated when Alex Dombrandt broke away from a maul and Bradley bowled over, but Bath instantly stretched their lead from the restart when Ollie Lawrence charged through and flicked the ball on to Carr-Smith to run over. Quins' luck unravelled as David went off with what looked like an arm injury, and Caden Murley followed for a head injury assessment which he failed, and with a 6:2 split bench, it meant scrum-half Stu Townsend came on and starting nine Lucas Friday had to fill in on the wing.
Dombrandt then saw a try ruled out for an obstruction in the build-up, and while Marcus Smith kicked over a penalty to make it 14-8, it wasn't long before Bath had their third at the other end. Finn Russell side-stepped around a scrambling Quins defence to pass to Carreras to double his tally. Harlequins had 16 backs and 11 forwards unavailable with injury before the match even started Hooker Dunn secured Bath's bonus point two minutes into the second half, routinely putting the ball down from a line-out and driving maul.
Quins pulled another back when Guido Petti stole the ball from a Russell pass and off-loaded one-handed to Treadwell to make it 26-15. But Richards immediately pushed the scoreline back out with Bath's fifth, and superb individual power saw Bayliss run into the corner for a sixth. To compound Quins' woes, Johann van Graan was unloading his bench, bringing on the likes of Thomas du Toit, while their Wales fly-half Evans went off holding his shoulder, forcing number eight Dombrandt to play the final 20 minutes in the centre.