By Griff
April 7 2021

There is a bit of needle between London Irish and Bath these days. With the departure of coaching staff to the West there followed an exodus of home-grown talent to join them leaving behind a hole in the Irish squad along with a very bad taste. As a club without a hugely wealthy owner (Mick C can really only be seen as quite rich when up against the owners at Bath) Irish really need to nurture their own talent and when that talent is attracted elsewhere it hurts. So these days it's become a bit of a rivalry.    

Back in December in this weird season an outbreak of Covid at Hazelwood saw Bath take the win without a ball being played, given their form at the time you had to wonder if they'd dodged a bullet. It's always a short-cut to heartache to go into a game as an Irish supporter with hope of a win, but we could have been forgiven, I think, for hoping for a rare win at the Rec on that occasion. We'll never know but it meant Bath's visit to the BCS was our only way of exercising the rivalry.

The visiting side had gone some way to repairing their early season failings but they were shorn of their Six Nations stars it was a difficult one to call. Irish's form at their shiny new home was beginning to look promising. Bring it on...

The visitors started very brightly indeed, dousing initial home-support's hope, with some ambitious wide-play backed-up by some steely forward moves. Irish struiggled to hold the ball and once Bath got hold of it they made great use of it. The first score seemed inevitable and so it proved with a deft off-load putting Will Muir over the whitewash and Ben Spencer adding the extras.

The score seemed to galvanize Irish who wrestled a little control from the visitors resulting in a quick penalty which was slotted by Paddy Jackson. The quick score gave London Irish heart but also allowed them to slip back to old ways and soon Bath were back 7 points ahead with a penalty of their own.

Lesson learned the Irish steel returned and soon the hosts were making use of their new-found posession stretching the Bath defence amd making in-roads into their territory. During a break Ben Loader was tackled by Bath captain Charlie Ewels and, after TMO intervention, was seen to make contact with the Irish flyer's head with his shoulder. At the time I thought it looked harsh but this sort of incident is handled differently these days and Ewels was shown a yellow card - the lengthy debate was whether it was red or not.

Irish made the numbers advantage count, keeping the pressure on their opponents and kicking for the corner the Exiles probed the line and moved the ball around trying to find a gap. A dummy and step from Ben Loader saw the winger score what was, remarkably, his first try of the season. Jackson added the conversion and the score was level.

A Spencer penalty saw the visitors gain a 3 point lead but Irish were still intent on playing expansive rugby and pressuring their opponents. A mazy stunner of a run from Tom Parton saw the home side near the goal-line, an off-load to Ollie Hassell-Collins pushed close and allowed Matt Rogerson to pick from the base of the ruck and drive over the line. Jackson converted and Irish were in-front for the first time.

Half time - Irish 17 - 13 Bath

Bath restarted the half remembering their game-plan and returning to their dominance, keeping the ball and making it count. Soon they were back in-front with a converted Anthony Watson try. The forwards had done the bulk of the work but Watson finished off, crashing in under the posts. A further penalty kicked by Spencer saw the vistors in the box seat again and left Irish rocking.

A few substitutions later, though, and the Exiles had their own mojo back. A sublime run from Sean O'Brien was finshed from a superb support-running Tom Parton who showed incredible pace to streak in. Another conversion, much easier in the middle of the pitch, meant Irish were back in the lead.

And then it went strange.

Bath prop Tom Dunn decided that the best way to deal with an approaching Agustin Creevy was to stick his fore-arm/elbow into the hooker's face. Refereee Craig Maxwell-Keys had little choice but to send the Bath player off and Irish had a numbers advantage again. They soon made it count with a great team effort getting the ball wide to Ben Loader for the winger's second and another Jackson conversion.

Irish were looking great and Bath were looking like they'd need a huge effort to keep their hosts in-sight. Bath winger Will Muir didn't help their cause by tackling Rob Simmons in the air and seeing a yellow card. At this point the visitors were looking to their captain for a steady head but Ewels made the choice to shoulder-charge and Irish player in-the-back, off-the-ball and got a second yellow card for his troubles. Bath were now down to 12 men on the field and Irish had a full-compliment.

The mis-match soon showed with Curtis Rona finishing another whole team effort and giving Jackson another conversion.

Game over, you'd think. Bath, to their credit, were not done. With the end of their yellow card bringing their numbers back to 13 the vistors chose to stick the ball, wisely, up their jumpers. Keeping it tight and using the maul vary effectively Bath managed to arm-wrestle their way back into exerting pressure. At this point the referee made the decision, in my mind, to even things up. Two quick yellow cards were shown to Jack Cooke and Ben Donnell, the former seconds after he took the pitch. There hadn't been a huge amount of penalties against Irish but Maxwell-Keys chose to bin Irish to keep the contest alive.

And alive it was after two well ground-out forwards tries brought Bath within three points. Firstly Irish old-boy Josh McNally crashed over (following Cooke's departure) and then Jack Walker followed suit once Donnell had gone. Conversions for both of them would've given Bath the game.

As it was Bath got a last gasp penalty which they kicked to the corner hoping to steal the game back but they missed touch and a grateful Tom Parton kicked the ball off the pitch to take the victory.

Irish 36 - 33 Bath.

It was a quite staggering game with Irish just about deserving the win but, as ever, not making it easy for the support to watch.