'On a yellow card, you’re supposed to be off for 10 minutes, not 7'

Harlequins director of rugby Billy Millard was proud of the way his team got back to winning ways, even if they were made to sweat at the end of their remarkable 40-36 victory over Bath.

Quins were left smarting by a 52-7 thrashing at Saracens last Saturday and they appeared to be making up for that spectacularly as they played some superb rugby in opening up a 40-3 lead early in the second half.

Momentum then swung 180 degrees as Bath came storming back with 33 unanswered points that gave them two bonus points to lift them up to second in the Gallagher Premiership, two points ahead of fourth-placed Harlequins.

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Millard said: “First and foremost, we had a pretty big week together, bouncing back from that (defeat at Saracens) last week, so full credit and I’m so proud of the boys and the whole staff to get it right.

“We bounced back and I thought in the first half we played some of our best footy.

“The second half, I think there was a bit of ill-discipline, yellow cards (to Irne Herbst and Louis Lynagh), a momentum shift and they got on the front foot.

“It’s amazing how you can get that sort of momentum, especially with yellow cards, and fair play to them for staying in the game, but we know they’re capable of that with the players they’ve got and their bench had a good impact.

“But I’m just really proud of the boys to bounce back like that after a tricky week.”

Harlequins stormed into a 33-3 half-time lead thanks to tries from Andre Esterhuizen, Marcus Smith, Lynagh, Alex Dombrandt and Will Evans.

The result looked certain after Esterhuizen scored his second, but Bath got to within four points as Will Muir, Alfie Barbeary, Louis Schreuder, Ruaridh McConnochie and Elliott Stooke all crossed.

Bath head coach Johann van Graan said: “We came here to win, so we’re disappointed we didn’t win, but I’ll take the two points and it shows that we’re tough to beat.

“A game of rugby is never done until that final whistle goes.

“On the whole, congrats to Quins, they were better than us across the 80 minutes.

“It was small margins, we needed one more opportunity to get that win, but I think the score is a fair reflection of the game.”

On Herbst returning from the sin bin three minutes early, Van Graan said: “I flagged it with the referee after the game.

“There’s not a lot that he can do, on the pitch he wasn’t even aware of it.

“We went through our team manager and we made the fourth official aware.

“On a yellow card, you’re supposed to be off for 10 minutes, not seven.”