Bath heap misery on Exiles
London Irish suffered a ninth straight defeat as a late Olly Barkley penalty gave Bath a 25-24 victory at the Madejski Stadium.
By Alex Williams
Last Updated: 01/01/11 6:33pm
London Irish suffered a ninth straight defeat in all competitions as a last-gasp penalty from Olly Barkley gave Bath a 25-24 victory at the Madejski Stadium.
Barkley kicked a total of 20 points as the visitors, who themselves have been in poor form recently, recovered from a poor start to scrape home in the Aviva Premiership clash.
The Exiles were by far the more dynamic team with the ball in hand and scored three impressive tries through Sailosi Tagicakibau, Richard Thorpe and Topsy Ojo.
But they were often overpowered in the battle at the breakdown and Barkley made them pay the price for repeated infringements.
The hosts made an energetic start to the match as Tagicakibau charged over for the opening try of the contest on two minutes.
Bath fly-half Butch James dropped a pass, with the loose ball being collected by Daniel Bowden before it was moved out wide to Tagicakibau, who finished in the corner. Chris Malone added the conversion.
Penalty
The advantage was extended to 10 points in the seventh minute as Malone slotted a penalty through the posts after Bath were penalised for coming in at the side at the breakdown.
The visitors eventually managed to stem the tide, although they were lucky not to fall further behind when Delon Armitage sent a long-range penalty wide after Bath did not move away after the tackle.
Bath then steadily made their way into the game and Barkley, who had earlier missed his first penalty, got their first three points on the board after Irish had hands in the ruck.
Another infringement at the ruck - this time the hosts going off their feet - allowed Barkley to reduce the gap to four points with another penalty.
But the Exiles snapped out of their lull just before half-time as Delon Armitage broke free after a wonderful pass from Elvis Seveali'i, before playing in flanker Thorpe to score.
Malone added a fine conversion but there was still time for Barkley to slot through another penalty to make it 17-9 at the interval.
Bright start
England captain Lewis Moody had blood pouring from a gash on his head before half-time but he was back after the break as Bath made a much brighter start to the second half.
The visitors began to bombard the Exiles' try-line around the 50 minute mark, with the pressure increasing after Thorpe was shown a yellow card for collapsing a threatening maul.
After several minutes spent camped out in their own 22, the Exiles' stern defence finally gave way as scrum-half Michael Claassens squeezed over and Barkley's conversion cut the gap to a single point.
The home side could not keep their discipline at the scrum and yet another infringement allowed Barkley to kick his fourth penalty to give Bath a 19-16 lead.
But the tables were soon turned again as Topsy Ojo broke through a tackle to score under the posts and put Irish in control once more.
Another breakdown infringement allowed Barkley to kick a fifth penalty - reducing the gap to two - and when Bob Casey and Steffon Armitage were adjudged to have collapsed a maul, the Bath centre secured victory from in front of the posts with the last kick of the game.
