Bath snatch late bonus

Editor

Bath outscored London Irish four tries to two to claim a 44-23 bonus-point win at Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

The luck of the Irish did not shine on London Irish as they were beaten 44-23 by Bath, on this year's St. Patricks Day party fixture at the Madejski Stadium.

Despite a slow start, Bath stepped their game up as the game went on, and they went on to record a bonus point victory with help from the immaculate boot of George Ford.

After a slow start the game really kicked in to gear just after the half hour mark. Tries from Topsy Ojo and Kyle Eastmond for their respective sides, amongst a few penalties, meant the two teams went in at half-time with little separating them.

Tries in the second half from Anthony Watson, Dave Wilson and Matt Garvey helped the Somerset outfit cement their top-four place even further.

The opening exchanges lacked a cutting edge as both side tried to suss one another out. The only point of note in the first 10 minutes was a poor penalty kick from James O'Connor.

Irish prop, Matt Parr, was then sin-binned shortly after for a pull back. Despite their numerical disadvantage Irish nearly got the first score through Ojo, only for it to be disallowed after Shane Geraghty made a forward pass in the build-up.

George Ford comfortably put away two penalties either side of one from O'Connor to give Bath a narrow lead after half an hour.

Five minutes later, though, Ojo snuck through to score on the line to claim his first try of the season and give the hosts a 10-6 lead.

Although, Bath hit back immediately. England centre, Eastmond, went through to score in the far corner to put his side back in front. A penalty for either side meant Bath went in with a slender 14-13 lead.

Two more penalties from the impeccable George Ford and one from Geraghty put the score at 20-16 to Bath shortly after the restart.

That was before Bath put themselves clear in the ascendency after scoring a controversial try. Nick Abendanon made a fantastic surge through the Irish line before releasing Watson, who went over to score. Though after review, it appeared Dave Attwood had stopped Ofisa Treviranus from making a tackle in the build-up.

Prop, Wilson, also went through ten minutes later to give Bath a clear advantage and effectively kill the game off.

Chris Hala'ufia went over for Irish in the closing stages to give the home fans something to cheer, but Garvey scored in the last play of the game to give the visitors a handsome 44-23 win.

The scorers:

For London Irish:
Tries: Ojo, Hala'ufia
Cons: O'Connor, Humphreys
Pens: O'Connor 2, Geraghty
Yellow cards: Parr, Skivington

For Bath:
Tries: Eastmond, Watson, Wilson, Garvey
Cons: Ford 3
Pens: Ford 6

London Irish: 15 James O'Connor, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Fergus Mulchrone, 12 Eamonn Sheridan, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Darren Allinson, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Kieran Low, 5 Nic Rouse, 4 George Skivington (c), 3 Jamie Hagan, 2 David Paice, 1 Matt Parr
Replacements: 16 Jimmy Stevens, 17 John Yapp, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Jebb Sinclair, 20 Chris Hala'ufia, 21 Andrew Fenby, 22 Ian Humphreys, 23 Ed Hoadley

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Ollie Devoto, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Semesa Rokoduguni, 10 George Ford, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Matt Garvey, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 3 David Wilson, 2 Ross Batty, 1 Paul James
Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 19 Dominic Day, 20 Guy Mercer, 21 Micky Young, 22 Gavin Henson, 23 Horacio Agulla

Venue: Madejski Stadium
Referee: Gregory Garner
Assistant Referees: Nigel Carrick, Peter Huckle
TMO: David Sainsbury