Sam Underhill faces months out after biceps injury clouds Bath's win at Harlequins

Sam Underhill is facing a potentially lengthy spell on the sidelines after sustaining a biceps injury during Bath’s 33-17 Gallagher Premiership victory over Harlequins at The Stoop on the opening night of the 2026-27 season.

The England flanker lasted just 48 minutes before leaving the field, and Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan confirmed the injury requires further assessment. “It seems like a biceps injury. Obviously Sam will have to go for a scan,” van Graan said. “As we know, if the biceps is gone that’s a number of months. Hopefully we’ve got a bit of grace there, but I guess we’ll know a bit more next week.”

The timing is particularly damaging for Underhill, who had already missed England’s July tour due to shoulder surgery. Steve Borthwick’s side open their four-match Nations Championship programme against Australia on November 8, and Underhill’s availability for that series now looks uncertain at best.

On a brighter note for Bath, Argentina wing Santi Carreras produced a try that van Graan immediately labelled the club’s score of the season — remarkable given it arrived on the first night of the campaign. Carreras intercepted a scoring pass destined for Cadan Murley by kicking the ball forward, gathered it inside his own 22, and finished with a composed run to the line.

“What a player, what a moment,” van Graan said. “The decision to firstly use his foot and then the skill level to actually try and kick it up and not kick it down, to get it on the touchline, to keep his head and then to finish that — that’s going to be try of the season for us in round one. We’ve got some amazing players at our club and he’s certainly one of them.”

Harlequins were already without a cluster of England internationals before kick-off. Marcus Smith (hand), George Furbank (concussion), Fin Baxter (foot) and Alex Dombrandt (knee) all missed the match. Smith could return for Saturday’s trip to Gloucester, with Furbank also expected to be available for that fixture. Baxter is three to four weeks away, while Dombrandt faces a longer recovery.

Quins head coach Jason Gilmore found reasons for encouragement despite the defeat. “I’m really happy with the grit and the fight that they showed, particularly in the second half. We had some massive defensive sets on our goal line, which we withstood,” he said. “I’m frustrated that we created a lot of line breaks but we panicked a little bit at the end of them and turned over far too much ball which released pressure off Bath.”