Marcus Smith injury news takes edge off Harlequins win at Bath

Harlequins' win over Bath on Friday was overshadowed by news that Marcus Smith, the England fly-half, has been ruled out for the rest of the year with an ankle injury, leaving him in a race against time to be fit for the Six Nations.

Smith has already seen one specialist and is set to see another next week to determine the extent of the injury. His immediate absence will come as a blow for Harlequins, missing the side's trip to South Africa next week to face the Sharks in the Champions Cup and the 'Big Game' on December 27 against Bristol Bears at Twickenham.

"Simply, it is an ankle injury," said Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson. "He will be out for this month, and I think early next year we will get a better prediction of actually how many weeks he will be out for. Disappointing for him, but he's quite a resilient lad and he hasn't had many injuries, touch wood."

Bath had won their last three Premiership matches but were behind early when Alex Dombrandt, who will hope to be back in England's plans by February, opened the scoring with a typical thundering run to score under the posts.

Orlando Bailey hit back with a penalty for Bath but Harlequins' attack looked sharp. Denied five metres out by a Fergus-Lee Warner lineout steal, the visitors were soon back over thanks to Oscar Beard's dancing feet, cutting inside two Bath defenders for his first league try of the season.

Good work at the breakdown with Miles Reid and Josh Bayliss both winning penalties went unrewarded as Bailey missed both attempts at the posts, to leave Harlequins ahead 12-3 at the break.

Bath started the second half far brighter, Cam Redpath with a fine offload to release Will Butt who dummied was his way over to cut the deficit, with the influential Redpath then putting Ted Hill into space for a break. But a burst from Cadan Murley settled Harlequins down, earning a penalty under the posts which turned into their third try through Nick David after a pre-planned move involving Dombrandt, Danny Care and Tommaso Allan.

Piers Francis, on for Bailey, answered with three points for Bath but Harlequins were back in control, forcing penalties out of Bath and dominating the scrum as the hosts clung on. Bath's maul was overdue for a rumble, but a TMO check ruled they were held up over the line.

Harlequins scrum remained impressive, winning a fifth set-piece penalty, but they were failing to capitalise. Instead it was Bath who pressed again through their maul only to be held up for a second time, leaving the game finely poised with Harlequins ahead 19-13 going into the final minutes.

And they seemed set to survive, before a bit of sloppiness at the breakdown and a burst from Joe Cokanasiga earned Bath a penalty with 50 seconds left, and a yellow card for Harlequins' George Head. That set off a run of Bath penalties with Harlequins trying to stop the maul, with Kenningham also sin-binned to put the visitors down to 13. But Harlequins impressively held Bath out to secure a sixth Premiership win of the season.

"At the end of 80 minutes, considering the amount of mauls and players we had in the bin, that is a courageous effort," Matson added, with Harlequins travelling to South Africa on Sunday with a squad of 30 players.

Johann van Graan, Bath's head coach, said: "We had opportunities to win it twice over the try line and you can't see a grounding, so it's one of those games where you say, 'what if?'"