Bath's slow-dripping relegation torture shows little sign of easing. They have performed much worse in the Zurich Premiership this season than they did in last night's defeat to a buzzing London Irish side but an away win of any description still eludes the west country club and they remain equal on points with Leeds and Harlequins at the foot of the table
With Irish riding high in third place and almost assured of European rugby next season, neither the result nor the manner in which it was achieved came as much of a surprise. The home fly-half Barry Everitt is not renowned for letting visitors off the hook if they concede too many penalties and his haul of 26 points proved more than enough to settle a contest which caught fire only sporadically.
In front of 6,055 chill supporters, the young Bath side with Iain Balshaw at fly-half played their hearts out but, as so often, found the opposition try-line barred to them. The consequences of another loss to Leeds at the Rec on Saturday will be even more serious and, if that should happen, their supporters may well have to assume the worst.
Irish have a genuine Cup final looming at Twickenham on Saturday week but for Bath every game now falls into that tense category. After Leeds' visit this weekend they have just three more fixtures in which to save themselves - away to Newcastle and Gloucester and home to Wasps - and their team sheet last night underlined once again how badly they have missed their regular matchwinner Mike Catt.
Balshaw's recent form may have shown sufficient flickers of a revival for team director Michael Foley to toss him the No. 10 jersey, but the England squad man's first attempt to put boot to ball did not bode well. Instead of rolling a clever grubber kick down the right touchline he trod on the ball and play was instantly transferred down the other end by the bustling home pack, a neat summary of Bath's ill-starred season.
Things did not get much better for Balshaw when Declan Danaher charged down an attempted in-goal clearance and another territory-seeking punt bounced wastefullly over the dead-ball line 50 metres away. Had Irish shown a touch more composure themselves the game might easily have been over inside the first quarter but, to their credit, the youthful visitors refused to roll over meekly.
Olly Barkley landed two superbly-struck penalties to cancel out a brace from Everitt and Balshaw's evening took a spectacular turn for the better with two long-range drop-goals, the second from almost 50 metres. In between, though, Irish scored a wonderfully-slick try from Horak after clever approach work from Geoff Appleford and Paul Sackey and two more Everitt penalties gave his side a deserved 19-12 half-time lead.
Bath's hopes of a stirring fightback did not improve when their captain Dan Lyle failed to appear after the interval and the Exiles, with their trademark brand of calculated helter-skelter rugby, continued to enjoy far more possession. At times they resemble an American gridiron team in their ceaseless quest for multi-phase yardage and in Everitt they have a kicker who would certainly do the San Francisco 49ers proud.
Two more dead-eyed penalties within five minutes had propelled Irish into a 25-12 lead by the hour mark and a constant stream of substitutions made no difference to the tide of events.
Appleford, captain of England's Hong Kong Sevens-winning squad, and Brendan Venter are a mighty effective midfield partnership and alongside them Everitt kept on kicking the goals. He finished with eight penalties and conversion and has now passed 400 for the season.
The bright spots for Bath were limited to Barkley's accuracy with the boot and Mike Tindall's gallantry after a bruising international weekend but still they lack punch in the back-row and genuine trickery behind the scrum. Saturday will be a serious test of their resolve.
London Irish: Horak; Sackey, Appleford, Venter, Bishop; Everitt, Martens; Worsley, Drotske, Hardwick, Strudwick (capt), Williams, Gustard, Danaher, Sheasby.
Bath: Thirlby; Voyce, Tindall, Barkley, Danielli; Balshaw, Dalzell; Emms, Long, Mallett, Gabey, Grewcock, G Thomas, Scaysbrook, Lyle (capt).
Referee: S Leyshon.
