BATH'S sumptuous Farleigh House base is "a happy place to be" said first team coach Toby Booth after they registered an 11th straight win, their fifth in the Aviva Premiership,.

A 14-3 win over Harlequins, sitting just a place below them in fourth, cemented Bath's place in the play-off positions. They also sit top of both their Amlin Challenge Cup and the Anglo-Welsh pools.

The highlight of a workmanlike performance in front of a capacity 12,200 crowd at the Recreation Ground was a stunning try from centre Jonathan Joseph, who rounded England full-back Mike Brown in a 40-metre run to the line.

Booth said: "He took his try very well and not many people do that, stand up the England full-back."

On the overall performance, he said: "I thought defensively, we were excellent.

"Everyone knows about how Harlequins play the game and to keep them to three points is impressive. But the defence, along with a bit of forward domination, paved the way for the victory.

"We drove well and we scrummed exceptionally well - and we got control of the game.

"The quality of this league is that, unless someone is having a particularly bad day, you're not going to see the fruits of your effort until 50 minutes in, really.

"And often it's a softening up process and eventually your quality tells."

"We are in a good position but we're in a situation where we are still speaking about the player empowerment side and the culture - we haven't really spoken about outcomes.

"And we've won the A League this week, which is important. It's a happy place to be and people are enjoying coming to work but we know there is a significant improvement still to come along. That's the exciting thing.

"Look at the consistent top four performers - we've got three in three weeks. We'll have a better idea after that of our progress. But we aren't where we are in the table by accident."

Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea said: "First of all, the side that won, deserved to win.

"But we are pretty disappointed that we didn't get the try that was 'scored', that it didn't go the TMO.

"When a try is so openly and blatantly scored why did it not go to the TMO?"

"We gave them an easy six-point start. And the try they scored from set piece from 50 metres was off a line-out when we were down to 14 men.

"Our guys stuck at it right to the end, probably didn't get the reward they deserved. It was a pretty tight game and every little thing went their way as opposed to ours."

On Charlie Walker's sin-binning for a tip tackle on Anthony Watson, he said: "It was no more than a yellow. I thought the crowd refereed the game very well!"

"It was a very tightly balanced game. I didn't see them getting another try. We spent a lot of time on the opposition line in both halves but came away with nothing.

"You have to be fairly philosophical but we have to look at where and how we let the game get away from us.

"I am a bit frustrated because we could have got more out of that game.

"We'll look forward to Big Game Six (against Exeter at Twickenham) next week, with a capacity crowd. Hopefully, the weather is good and we can look forward to some rugby."

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