Injury-hit Harlequins' experimental decision to switch England centre Will
Greenwood to fly-half proved an instant match-winning success on Saturday.
Greenwood scored the opening try and quickly formed an understanding with
scrum-half Nick Duncombe as Quins sunk Bath.
The absence of regular fly-half Paul Burke and David Slemen prompted the
switch and Greenwood, capped 30 times in the centre by England, soon slotted in
like a specialist number 10.
His performance overshadowed the debut of former South Africa captain Andre
Vos, who only flew in to join Harlequins this week after playing in last
weekend's Currie Cup final.
Vos was greeted by a typically sodden grey English Saturday afternoon and in
the opening stages it looked as though Quins would not provide him with much of
a welcome.
They hardly came out of their own half in the opening 20 minutes, during which
they lost lock Bill Davison to the sin bin for 10 minutes for impeding the exit
of the ball from a ruck and went behind to Olly Barkley's 19th-minute penalty.
But when Bath had prop Simon Emms yellow-carded in 33rd minute, Duncombe and
Greenwood took the chance to take control of the game.
After the depleted Bath pack were pushed back almost on to their own line,
Duncombe supplied the initial short pass and the lanky Greenwood strode in for
the opening touchdown which third-choice kicker Nathan Williams converted.
A minute into first-half injury time the new half-back duo again opened up to
Bath's defence.
They quickly moved the ball for Fijian centre Viliame Satala to stretch the
Bath defence to breaking point before he sent winger Matt Moore over
unchallenged for an unconverted try.
Vos' indiscretion when he took a man without the ball enabled Barkley to kick
his second penalty, from the halfway line, and reduce the deficit to 12-6 at the
start of the second half.
Barkley made it three out of three with a 53rd-minute penalty but Bath,
without injured England star Mike Catt, were never quite able to completely cut
the gap.
Harlequins rocked for a spell but two second-half penalties from Williams
enabled them to hold the initiative and lift the pressure at the bottom the
table, where they leave Bath hovering ominously just five points ahead of bottom
club Bristol having played a match more.
Greenwood, admittedly, does not always kick with the style of a classic
fly-half but that facet his game still proved effective and he almost produced a
third Harlequins try when centre Nick Greenstock just failed to reach his chip
into the touchdown area.
He is unlikely to ever fit into Clive Woodward's vision of an England fly-half
but the experiment looks more than capable of solving his club's current
problems.
Teams:
Harlequins: N. Williams, Moore, Satala, Greenstock, Gollings,
Greenwood, Duncombe, Leonard, Fuga, Gomez, Davison, Codling,
Tiatia, Vos, Diprose.
Not Used: Rudzki, Starr, Evans, Sheriff, Bemand, Jewell,
Fitzgerald.
Sin Bin: Davison (15).
Tries: Greenwood, Moore.
Cons: N. Williams.
Pens: N. Williams 2.
Bath: Perry, Danielli, Maggs, Tindall, Barkley, Malone, Cooper,
Emms, Humphries, Galasso, Borthwick, Grewcock, Scaysbrook,
Lyle, N. Thomas.
Not Used: A. Williams, Long, Mallett, Voyce, Crockett, Lloyd,
Beattie.
Sin Bin: Emms (34).
Pens: Barkley 3.
Att: 8,311
Ref: Ashley Rowden (RFU).
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