'He is one of the most underrated players, I have ever seen'

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan described their Gallagher Premiership opener as “clunky” as the reigning champions overcame a sluggish start to fight back for a 47-31 win over Harlequins before a sell-out crowd at the Stoop.

The visitors trailed 17-7 at one stage but a yellow card for Quins lock Chandler Cunningham-South was the catalyst for them to score 33 unanswered points as their opponents had no answers to Bath’s power game.

Henry Arundell scored a brace for Bath with Tom Dunn, Ben Obano, Billy Sela, Archie Griffin and Sam Underhill also on the scoresheet, while Ben Spencer added five conversions and Tom de Glanville one.

Harlequins flanker Will Evans scored a first half hat-trick, with Jack Kenningham and Tyrone Green also crossing over as Jarrod Evans added the extras.

Van Graan said: “We had a good training week but had a clunky first half as Quins put us under a lot of pressure.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Saracens

1

1

0

0

5

2

Sale

1

1

0

0

5

3

Bath

1

1

0

0

5

4

Harlequins

1

0

1

0

1

5

Bristol

0

0

0

0

0

6

Exeter Chiefs

0

0

0

0

0

7

Leicester

0

0

0

0

0

8

Northampton

0

0

0

0

0

9

Gloucester

1

0

1

0

0

10

Newcastle

1

0

1

0

0

“They pressed at the breakdown and we didn’t react quickly enough and were happy just to be only 17-14 down at half-time.

“We showed good composure in the second half by scoring straight away and it was a good performance after the interval to pick up five points as it’s never easy coming here.

“Two years ago we were 40-3 down and last year we came back to win late on.”

Quins senior coach Jason Gilmore would have been pleased that his side showed some late spirit to score two tries and earn a losing bonus point but they were no match for the opposition in the crucial third quarter.

He said: “We played some really good stuff in that first half as we wanted to be positive and our aim is to get at least a bonus point by scoring four tries in every game.

“We started the second half poorly with a poor kick and chase to gift them a try.

“We then lost two hookers in succession and didn’t recover as we lost the aerial battle which resulted in them getting a lot of territory and us being on the wrong side of the referee.

“We are proud that we fought back to get 31 points so we got something out of the game.”

On the performance of Will Evans, Gilmore added: “He is one of the most underrated players, I have ever seen.

“If he was back in Australia he would probably be an international but over here the competition is so hot in the area.”