MATCH FACTS Bath: (24) 27 Tries: Barkley, Fea'unati, Crockett Cons: Barkley 3 Pen: Barkley 2 Exiles: (8) 15 Tries: Bishop, Strudwick Con: Everitt Pen: Mapletoft

Three first-half tries from Olly Barkley, Isaac Fea'unati and Alex Crockett, all converted by Barkley, gave them a 24-3 interval lead.

Barkley also kicked a penalty and added another before the hour.

Wing Justin Bishop and lock Ryan Strudwick scored tries at the end of either half for the visitors, but by then the damage had been done.

There was little to choose between the two sides early on and it took until the 19th minute for Barkley to open the scoring for Bath with a penalty from 35m out.

We played some good stuff early on but lost our shape Bath coach John Connolly

Bath's first try followed soon after when Mark Mapletoft - covering at full-back for the injured Michael Horak - spilled an up-and-under with Barkley latching onto the loose ball and sliding over.

Bath suffer Fea'unati blow

Mapletoft cut his side's arrears with a straightforward penalty, but the next try went Bath's way as Fea'unati crossed the line.

The home side were enjoying plenty of possession and a slick move was finished off by Crockett on 40 minutes to put Bath in a commanding lead.

London Irish grabbed a lifeline in stoppage time though as Bishop intercepted Barkley's pass to race in from 60m.

We probably played our worst rugby of the season in the first half London Irish coach Gary Gold

Barkley extended Bath's lead on 55 minutes with another penalty, and had looked to be in with a chance of a bonus point when the Exiles' Roland Reid was sin-binned on 71 minutes.

Although the result was not in doubt, the Irish defence held firm and it was the Exiles who scored the final try of the match through Strudwick.

Bath: Perry, Welsh, Crockett, Barkley, Daniel, Malone, Walshe, Barnes, Humphreys, Bell, Hudson, Fidler, Beattie, Lipman, Fea'unati
Replacements: Mears, Kok, Scaysbrook, Delve, Wood, Davey, Maddock.

London Irish: Horak; Bishop, Appleford, Mapletoft, Staniforth; Catt, Hodgson; Wheatley, Paice, Hardwick; Kennedy, Casey; Gustard, Danaher, Murphy
Replacements: Halsey, Van der Walt, Reid, Strudwick, Mordt, Edwards, Everitt.