Bath run hot to beat Exiles
Bath are up to seventh spot in the Guinness Premiership table after securing a bonus-point 35-22 win at London Irish.
Last Updated: 14/02/10 7:10pm
Bath boosted their hopes of qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup with an impressive 35-22 win at slumping London Irish.
The visitors scored four tries at the Madejski Stadium to pick up a bonus-point triumph that moves them into seventh in the Guinness Premiership table.
In contrast the out-of-sorts Exiles, who have now not won in six, find themselves looking nervously over their shoulder in fourth position.
Tom Homer scored all their points, kicking five penalties before grabbing a late try out that he also converted from wide on the left.
No excuses
While they do have mitigating circumstances in that a number of their leading names are away on international duty, Irish can have no excuses in defeat after a sloppy first 40 minutes that simply left them with too much to do.
Bath crossed three times to lead 25-6 at the interval, all of their tries being as much down to bad defensive errors as clinical finishing.
The opener came from an unlikely source, David Barnes somehow bursting away untouched from a ruck to score just the second league try of his career.
With the hosts waiting for the ball to be worked to the backs, the prop simply picked it up and scampered away to the line with a turn of pace not normally seen from a 33-year-old who spends his time in the front row.
If the first try was down to bad defence the second was a complete gift, Ryan Malone's loopy pass allowing Matt Banahan to pick it off and race away.
Centre Ryan Davis added a second conversion to follow on from his two early penalties as Bath managed 20 points in the same number of minutes.
It got even better before half time when a shoddy Exiles line-out throw deep in their own territory led to Joe Maddock going over for the first of his brace, the winger cutting in off the line after the ball had been worked from left to right.
All Irish managed in reply was a pair of penalties from Homer, who was given the kicking duties ahead of both Chris Malone and Peter Hewat.
The winger did drag his side back into the contest midway through the second half by booting over nine more points, making the score 25-15.
However Bath - who saw Butch James continue his return from injury by playing 73 minutes - were in no mood to let their advantage slip away.
Sin-binning
Although scrum-half Michael Claassens saw a try chalked off for an infringement in the build-up, the bonus-point score arrived for Steve Meehan's side soon after their rivals had been reduced to 14 men.
Exiles prop Faan Rautenbach was yellow-carded for an incident in a ruck, allowing Davis to kick over three easy points to increase the gap to 13.
Breathing a sigh of relief with the win now confirmed, Bath became much more expansive again and Maddock reaped the dividends, producing another fine finish tight to the touchline.
Homer's consolation try was just as impressive, as he burst onto sub Ryan Lamb's pass down the left touchline, stepped inside Luke Watson and then showed a blistering turn of speed to run away to the left corner.
