BATH prop Nathan Catt felt he and his teammates fell just short of the standards expected of them in the close weekend loss to Northampton, but believes the Blue, Black and Whites can bounce back against Harlequins on Saturday.

Despite establishing a six-point lead late on against Quins, Bath conceded an added-time converted try from David Ribbans to go down 27-26 at Franklin Gardens.

The loss ends a run of three consecutive wins in all competitions that saw Todd Blackadder’s side sweep aside Wasps, Newcastle Falcons and West Country rivals Gloucester.

The 31-year-old loosehead prop felt the majority of Bath’s game was up to standard, however, a handful of mental slips cost his team the chance to reinforce their desired consistency.

Catt said: “It was a tough game – the ball was in play a lot and it was very physical, but it was genuinely a fun game to play in. I thought the boys competed really well and I thought we played pretty well for the most part.

“Defensively, against a team that’s been pretty dangerous and scored a lot of tries recently, I think for large parts of the game I thought we managed to defend pretty well. At the same time, that wasn’t good enough because we did make a few too many mistakes and got punished for them.

“But come the end of the game, we made a few too many errors, soaked up a bit too much pressure and in the end, they’re a good team that are playing well, and they capitalised and punished us. It was a pretty frustrating way to lose a game.

“We’re not a million miles away, I feel like we’re genuinely very close, but we have to be more consistent and we can’t have these errors costing us.”

Catt believes the confidence that is flowing through every player at the club will make it that much easier to bounce back with a win against Harlequins this weekend.

But the Blue, Black and Whites will have to do it without Charlie Ewels and Joe Cokanasiga – who are involved with England – and Semesa Rokoduguni – who has a posterior cruciate ligament injury and will be out for one to two months.

Catt said: “We went into this block of games wanting and believing we could win all four. Obviously, we’ve lost at Northampton, but we want to keep winning to climb the ladder towards the end of the season.

“The boys are confident they can come out on top in what will be a tight match.”