Costly errors spell defeat for Irish
London Irish 22 Bath 26
GEORGE SKIVINGTON says London Irish’s error count proved costly as they were edged out by Bath in an Anglo-Welsh Cup thriller at the Mad Stad.
Exiles got off to a poor start, but regrouped to lead 22-20 with 20 minutes to play after two tries from Max Northcote-Green and one each for David Paice and Alex Lewington.
Bath responded through the boot of Freddie Burns, who ended the day with a perfect record of six from six at the tee, and the visitors held on at the end to win 26-22 in the group opener.
“It was a poor start and we just didn’t capitalise on a couple of opportunities,” said forwards coach Skivington.
“We were still in it right at the end and didn’t execute that final play.
“Disappointing is definitely the word for us.
“If you want to take a positive, we made a lot of uncharacteristic errors and we were still in the game.
“It’s easy to look for the negatives when you’ve lost a game that you thought you probably should’ve won.
“My gut tells me that the amount of errors we made was particularly high.
“Penalties are always something you want to minimise, but I feel like the error count was high.
“Against teams like Bath with the quality they’ve got, you can’t make many errors.
“Every time you make an error, you get punished.”
The visitors got off to a flying start, quickly going 7-0 up with less than five minutes on the clock. Centre Ben Tapuai found space to dart through the centre and score under the posts with Burns comfortably converting.
Exiles did get off the mark on 17 minutes when some neat play around the Bath 22 led to Paice offloading to Northcote-Green, who danced across the line to score.
Bath moved 10-5 ahead midway through the half when Burns wound up a penalty kick from just inside the Irish half and it had the legs to drop between the posts.
Both sides saw big chances to add a try come and go before London Irish levelled the scores at 10-10 heading towards the break when a fine burst and pass from James Marshall set NorthcoteGreen away down the right and he showed power and determination to force his way over the line.
Theo Brophy Clews again missed from the tee and would be taken off kicking duties after the restart.
One man certainly not struggling from the tee was Burns, kicking over another penalty to give the visitors a 13-10 lead at half-time.
But Exiles quickly turned the tables after the restart, going ahead for the first time in the contest when following a spell of pressure after a line-out in the corner, skipper Paice burrowed his way over. McKibbin brilliantly kicked the conversion.
However, back came Bath to restore their advantage. And it came in impressive fashion as the influential Burns’ cross-field kick was gathered in by Levi Davis, under pressure from Marshall, to dot down in the corner.
The game continued to swing both ways and Kennedy’s charges moved ahead again, 22-20 when Lewington brilliantly side-stepped his marker on the wing to reach out and score in the corner.
Two Burns penalties put Bath back ahead and set up a grandstand finale.
But Exiles could not muster one last hurrah, knocking the ball on just as they were approaching the Bath 22 and the visitors eventually turned the ball over and kicked to touch to clinch the 26-22 victory.
Exiles take two bonus points from the game ahead of this weekend’s trip to Gloucester.
And Skivington is looking forward to seeing how some of the younger players cope with the atmosphere at Kingsholm.
“The hostile places are in my experience the fun places to go,” he said. “You’ve got to be on your mettle.
“If you’re the sort of player that likes confrontation and enjoys that then you’ll thrive on it.
“There will be a few guys who get an opportunity who have never been into that sort of environment.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to throw them in and say, go on, this is t he reality, this is the physicality, this is the crowds you have to deal with, good luck, let’s see what you’re like.”
LONDON IRISH: Marshall, Cokanasiga, Mulchrone, McLean, Lewington (Tikoirotuma 64), Brophy Clews, McKibbin (Steele 56 (Ransom 68)), Elrington, Paice (c), Du Plessis (Hoskins 58), van der Merwe (Lloyd 70), Paulo, Northcote-Green (Smallbone 53), Cowan, Schatz (Treviranus 53). Rep not used: Woolstencroft.
Tries: Northcote-Green x2 (17,37), Paice (43), Lewington (58)
Con: McKibbin (43)
BATH: Atkins (Banahan 69), Davis (Atkins 77), James Wilson, Tapuai, Jack Wilson, Burns, Allinson (Green 53), Auterac (Nixon 64), van Vuuren (Walker 64), Lahiff (Vaughan 64), Douglas
(Stooke 62), Phillips, Garvey (c), Bayliss, Grant. Reps: Backhouse, Clark.
Tries: Tapuai (4), Davis (52)
Cons: Burns x2 (5,53)
Pens: Burns x4 (20,40,64,70)
Referee: Ben O’Keefe
Attendance: 4,364 Scoring sequence (Irish first): 0-5, 0-7, 5-7, 5-10, 10-10, 10-13, 15-13, 17-13, 17-18, 17-20, 22-20, 22-23, 22-26.