It’s a hooley for Irish on St Patrick’s party day
TWO red cards, five yellows and nine tries in a clash which went down to the wire!
The absent fans would have loved what should have been the traditional London Irish St Patrick’s party fixture.
It should have been all over after three minutes of indisciplined madness saw Bath reduced to 12 men in the second half with the dismissals of Tom Dunn and Charlie Ewels and the sin-binning of Will Muir.
But Bath showed their spirit to salvage two points, grabbing late tries through Josh McNally and Jack Walker as Exiles’ yellow cards levelled up the numbers at 13-a-side.
Bath had struck first with a try started and finished by former England Sevens star Muir.
The winger’s quicklytaken lineout launched a counter-attack and Jonathan Joseph made the break before 19-year-old Orlando Bailey, on his first Premiership start, and Max Clark sent Muir in.
Ewels shoulder struck the head of Ben Loader in a mistimed challenge and the event grew progressively worse for the England lock at the foul was reviewed
Referee Craig MaxwellKeys originally saw it as “only a penalty” but TMO
Tom Grashoff talked “high danger” which the referee mitigated to a yellow.
Irish winger Ben Loader then jinked past three defenders to score with Paddy Jackson converting to level at 10-10.
A lineout infringement enabled Ben Spencer to edge Bath ahead before the Exiles scored their second try.
Tom Parton burst 40 metres from his own half before skipper Matt Rogerson drove over in the left corner.
Curtis Rona preserved the 17-13 lead until the interval with a last-ditch tackle to deny Joe Cokanasiga a try in his first appearance against Irish since moving to The Rec.
Bath came out firing in the second half, with Spencer supplying a short pass to put Anthony Watson over before adding the conversion and a penalty for a 23-17 ahead.
Irish responded with Ollie Hassell-Collins drawing two opponents on halfway and finding Sean O’Brien who released Parton to run in their third try. Then it all suddenly got worse for Bath!
Dunn was dismissed for a forearm into the face of Agustin Creevy, Irish clinched their bonus point when Loader plucked Jackson’s long pass out of the air to cross in the corner for his second try, Muir was binned for taking Rob Simmons out in the air following the restart and Ewels was shown a second yellow – and inevitable red – for recklessly charging Facundo Gigena in the back.
The remains of the Bath pack took the game to Irish but the visitors were caught on the break with Loader and Theo Brophy Clews creating the Exiles’ fifth try for Rona to stretch the lead to 36-23.
Now Irish paid for their indiscretions. Between Jack Cooke and Ben Donnell seeing yellow for bringing down drives, McNally charged over to cut the deficit to eight points and Walker, back after Dunn departed, set up a grandstand finish.
Bath went for it but Spencer failed to put a penalty into touch and the chance had gone.