It is so long since Bath were a consistent force among England's elite that their assault on the Premiership's established top four has not so much gone unnoticed as not been taken too seriously. The club that dominated the final decade of amateurism has yet to win the Premiership, mostly stuck in the middle of the table, and their next two fixtures will go a long way to indicate whether their challenge will again be transient.
They will be in the East Midlands on consecutive weekends either side of the new year, visiting Northampton on Saturday before travelling to Leicester seven days later. A hard-fought, patient victory over Harlequins ensured they will go into 2014 in the top three after the first half of the regular season in the Premiership; their last league defeat was nearly three months ago.
"We are not where we are by accident," said their coach, Toby Booth. "We are in a good position but we have yet to speak about outcomes. We won the A league this month and this is a happy place to be, with everyone enjoying coming to work, but we know there are significant improvements to come along. We will be able to measure our progress after the last of the three consecutive fixtures against consistent top-four sides."
Bath recorded their 11th consecutive victory in all competitions and it is exactly a year since they were last defeated at home in the league. The only try of the game was scored by the centre Jonathan Joseph, who was dropped from the England squad after the summer tour to Argentina. But the way he finished from 40 metres after a move from a lineout, stepping away from Mike Brown, will have jolted the national head coach, Stuart Lancaster, who has to bring midfielders into his squad because of injuries.
"He has worked hard to get back to the level he needs to be at," said Booth. "The majority of our matches this season have been played in poor conditions and our eye-catching moments have been reduced but Jonathan has had a few in the last month, he took his try very well, showing there is no substitute for pace and agility, and his defence has improved."
Harlequins, who had gone into the match looking for their fifth consecutive Premiership victory, felt they should have been awarded a try with five minutes to go when Tom Guest appeared to have been driven over the line but their afternoon was summed up at the subsequent scrum when they conceded a penalty and they left without even a bonus point.
"I thought the crowd refereed the game very well," said the Quins' director of rugby, Conor O'Shea. "We stuck at it but every little thing went their way. That said, the team that deserved to win won and we did not hold on to the ball as well as we should have done."
Their mistakes were punished by Bath's outside-half George Ford whose kicking out of hand, if not off the tee, was flawless.
This time last season Bath were in the middle of a slump with victory over Harlequins their only one in six Premiership matches in a three-month period. "Not a lot has changed since then but we had a new coaching team then and it takes time for things to come together," said Bath's Wales prop, Paul James. "We have put a good run together but we are not getting ahead of ourselves and we have two massive games coming up. If there is more in the way of expectation on us now, it does not make a difference. We just continue to work hard."
Bath: Watson; Agulla, Joseph, Eastmond (Devoto, 71), Banahan; Ford, Stringer (Roberts, 60); James (Catt, 60), Webber (Guinazu, 73), Perenise (Orlandi, 71), Hooper (capt), Attwood (Day, 60), Garvey, Louw, Fearns (Houston, 68).
Try Joseph. Pens Ford 3.
Harlequins: Brown; Walker, Hopper, Molenaar, Smith (Lindsay-Hague, 68); Evans, Dickson; Marler (Lambert, 67), Ward, Doran Jones (Sinckler, 64), Matthews (Kennedy, 59), Robson, Wallace (Guest, 59), Robshaw (capt), Easter.
Pen Evans.
Sin-bin Walker 39
Referee M Fox (RFU) Attendance 12,200
