Bath face nervous wait on England lock injury news

Bath boss Johann van Graan’s only note of concern after his side’s resounding 47-28 victory over Harlequins was a rib injury to England lock Charlie Ewels.

Ewels left the field after 35 minutes in obvious discomfort and must be a doubt for next Friday’s European Challenge Cup tie at Pau.

Head of rugby Van Graan said: “It’s obviously very painful. If there is a doubt about him, we won’t consider him for next weekend. I don’t have anything specific to report, but at least he had a smile at the end of the game.”

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Otherwise, it was a very satisfying afternoon for Van Graan and his squad who sealed another bonus-point victory to extend their lead at the top of the Gallagher Premiership.

He said: “We’re very chuffed about the five points. We knew that this was a big moment in the season in terms of two games after the Six Nations, both at home. This was a very good Quins team that had just beaten Saracens. We anticipated that they would bring their power game, which they did.

“I thought we started the first 25 minutes fantastically well, to be 26-0 up. In terms of the bigger picture, we got the five points which puts us in a good position. But as I have said on many occasions we will only see at the back end of May where we are at.

“There are five rounds left so we can just keep focusing on what we need to do and keep trying to improve. But we’re obviously satisfied with 10 league points from the last two weeks. Now it’s back into Europe.”

He added: “It was a cracking atmosphere at the Rec today. It just seemed that it was a lot louder than last week. It was two teams again that wanted to play positive rugby and that is a trademark of this Premiership. We scored tries and scrambled well. We just keep doing what we are doing.”

Finn Russell, looking every inch a British and Irish Lions fly-half, contributed six conversions in addition to a masterly performance as playmaker but Van Graan was also pleased with the contributions of try-scoring lock Ross Molony and centre Max Ojomoh.

He said: “Ross hasn’t played 80 for a while. He got injured at Newcastle but to come in and play the full match says a lot about the group. Max went to England camp, and came back and played on the wing in the Premiership Cup final.

“Ever since, he and Cam (Redpath) have made a very good combination. I think that’s the beauty of our squad – everyone has different strong points. Max has been a stand-out player.”