DIRECTOR of rugby Todd Blackadder hailed his "ruthless" Bath side after they made short work of Harlequins in a 38-14 win.

Tries from Paul Grant, Freddie Burns, Elliott Stooke and Matt Banahan secured Bath's bonus point inside the first 20 minutes and meant their fourth straight Aviva Premiership win was never in doubt.

Blackadder said: "I just thought it was an outstanding performance all round. I couldn't have hoped for a better first half. I was just so proud of the guys.

"I'm just so pleased to see us do our basics well. We didn't try to force it, we kept building pressure and got quick ball. We just created so many opportunities.

"I couldn't have scripted it any better. We were dominant, clinical, ruthless. It was everything you want it to be."

Flanker Zach Mercer again caught the eye with his balance and footwork, creating Grant's opener in the process, and Blackadder added: "He was outstanding today, as he was outstanding last week. He had a tremendous game.

"He's really brought another dimension to his game, tackling and hitting hard. He's looking more and more like the complete footballer.

"For someone as versatile as him, he's really put his hand up and is playing some great rugby."

Blackadder conceded that parts of Bath's game did not work so well in the second half, when they only put three penalties on the scoreboard.

"The set-piece came under pressure and our line-out got slow," he admitted. "But we made a lot of changes. There are always things to improve on."

Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston had no complaints about James Chisholm's early sin-binning, which saw Bath score 19 points in the 10 minutes he was off the field.

"The minute I saw it, I thought it's definitely yellow," he said.

"But we've got to be better than that. It's not fair to James Chisholm that it's cost 19 points. The 14 on the field have somehow got to work their way through it better."

Quins were hit doubly hard because experienced lock Charlie Matthews also went off for a head injury assessment and never returned.

Kingston added: "With the adjustments to the team, including two head injury assessments, there was a lot of inexperience.

"I was proud of the way they conducted themselves in the second half. They stuck at it and we lost the second half 9-7.

"I said to them at half-time, there was no point lamenting what happened in the first 20 minutes. The way we stuck at it showed a positive sign."

Kingston, who estimated he had 30 of his 56-strong squad unavailable for one reason or another, said: "The pleasing thing is that we had a number of players who were asked to step up and they've come through with flying colours. No question, they will benefit from these experiences."