Bath Rugby drew first blood in the all-England clash against NEC Harlequins - but Quins Director of Rugby Dean Richards is convinced they can take the honours in the European Challenge Cup Round 4 return leg at Bath on Saturday...
"It's very important for us to get the victory at Bath," said Richards. "If we do, there is nothing to stop us going on to win the Pool. And, having done the hard work of getting an away victory against Connacht, we would be very disappointed not to build on that.
"We can take a lot of very positive points out of the first game against Bath. There were several very impressive individual performances from members of the team although as a team we did not play nearly as well as we would have liked and as a group we were very disappointed not to have come away from the game with a victory.
"Victory at Bath is certainly achievable - we are not going there to lose and it will make for an interesting match as we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
"Bath put in a very good performance - I would say that they 'cheated' more effectively than us in the tackle area - and that's very much part of the game.
"You always have to play to the referee to see what you can get away with. You have to take your hat off to Bath - they played the referee very well and reaped the rewards.
"Last week was the first time Harlequins played Bath since I came to the club and things have changed since I met them last with Leicester.
They are far from the pomp of the late 80's and early 90's but they have some quality players in the likes of Danny Grewcock and Ollie Barclay and are a real quality side."
