Aviva Premiership: Harlequins 35-28 Bath

Amanaki Mafi contributed in Bath's second-half fightback

Harlequins returned to winning ways with a morale-boosting 35-28 win over Bath at the Stoop in the Aviva Premiership on Friday.

Charlie Walker scored two tries for Quins, in an impressive perfomance, with James Horwill and Harry Sloan adding one apiece while fly-half Ben Botica added 15 points with the boot.

Last season's losing finalists Bath were in contention for the first 35 minutes but the sin-binning of scrum half Chris Cook turned the game on its head as the visitors tamely crumbled to concede three tries in six minutes.

However, when Quins' Sam Twomey saw yellow, they staged a remarkable rally scoring late tries from Amanaki Mafi, Semesa Rokoduguni and Jeff Williams, two converted by Tom Homer to add to his three penalties to secure a bonus point.

Quins made a flying start to the match, going eight points up within the first five minutes. First, Botica put them ahead with a third-minute penalty before Nick Easter intercepted Ollie Devoto's pass to send Sloan away for the first try.

Charlie Walker was impressive in an expansive game at the Stoop

However, within minutes Bath almost struck back with a try of their own when Matt Banahan made an excellent break but Horacio Agulla was hauled down a couple of metres short. The visitors maintained the pressure for Homer to put his side on the scoreboard with a simple penalty.

Botica kicked another penalty but this was nullified by one from Homer, so Bath trailed 11-6 at the end of a frenetic opening quarter.

Both teams looked to attack at every opportunity, with Bath particularly impressive with ball in hand. Kyle Eastmond, Banahan and Mafi regularly threatened the home defence but the concession of frequent penalties prevented them from capitalising.

Quins, in turn, showed their attacking qualities with strong runs from Kyle Sinckler and Mat Luamanu but some scrambled defence from the visitors kept their line intact and amazingly, the second quarter remained scoreless until four minutes from the break.

Kyle Sinckler caused Bath problems in attack with a series of strong runs

A superb run down the touchline from Walker gifted Quins a platform in the visitors' 22 and when Cook deliberately knocked on and was sent to the sin bin, Botica kicked the resulting penalty.

With the last play of the half, Quins scored their second try. A powerful burst from Mark Lambert put Bath on the back foot before Walker brushed aside a poor tackle from Banahan to score. Botica's conversion gave the hosts a healthy 21-6 interval lead.

Within five minutes of the restart, the game was over for Bath as first Walker seized on a fumble by Mafi to race 75 metres to score and then before Cook could return, the home side secured their bonus point when Horwill crashed over. The two conversions from Botica put Quins out of sight.

Bath have failed to recapture the form that took them to last season's Premiership final this campaign

Cook returned to stem the tide and when replacement Twomey was yellow carded for dragging down a line-out with 15 minutes remaining, Bath took full advantage, scoring 19 points in his absence with three tries from Mafi, Williams and Rokoduguni and two conversions from Homer.

Twomey returned but with two minutes to go, Horwill replaced him in the bin and when Quins were penalised, Homer kicked his third penalty to gain Bath a point.