Bath clinch crucial win with the luck of the Irish still missing in 2011

History repeated itself as Bath snatched a last gasp win against London Irish at the Madejski stadium to record their first Aviva Premiership victory since October. The visitors beat Irish earlier in the season thanks to a late Nick Abendanon try, but this time around secured a 24-25 with an 80th minute Olly Barkley penalty.

Bath and London Irish went into the match with two of the worst recent records in English rugby, and the number of mistakes and penalties conceded by both sides during the 80-minutes made it seem as if their dismal runs had become habit for each set of players.

Bath Director of Rugby Steve Meehan said: “I was really pleased with the team coming back from being ten points down.

"Winning in that fashion means a lot and obviously we will be very happy on the coach, but we are also aware we need to cash in on this big time over the next week as we have a very important four or five months ahead of us.”

The crucial change came when Bath moved to a more forward orientated game at half time, to grind out a victory as a light rain set in across Reading.

Irish made a flying start to the game. From a Bath line-out Steffon Armitage’s pressure on Butch James caused the South African to spill the ball which was hacked through by centre Dan Bowden. The ball was quickly recycled wide for Sailosi Tagicakibau to smash through two tackles and score in the corner, which Chris Malone majestically converted.

The home side attacked at a ferocious tempo, while Bath were making too many basic errors and gifted the home side penalties for mindless infringements around the tackle area. A Malone goal increased his side’s advantage to ten points after seven minutes.

The game settled down as the opening period wore on, and Bath began to force their way into the match. Delon Armitage missed a penalty from well inside his own half, before Olly Barkley slotted from 50-meters having missed a much simpler chance just minutes before.

A needless quick line-out from Malone in his own 22 left Delon Armitage isolated and three Bath defenders swarmed over him to force another penalty in front of the posts which Barkley had no difficulty in converting to make the scores 10-6.

But an inspired moment created Irish’s second try of the match. A neat run-around by Elvis Seveali’l with George Stowers created the overlap to feed Delon Armitage who screamed down the right wing. He passed inside to Richard Thorpe who bustled over the line to leave Malone with a difficult touchline kick – but this didn’t seem to faze the fly-half who neatly converted.

A further penalty from Barkley before the break made the score 17-9.

Bath started the second half as they played the first – making silly errors when in promising positions – but a nicely weighted kick from Butch James pinned Irish in their own corner and set up a sustained period of attacking pressure for the visitors.

They spurned their first opportunity with a knock on in the tackle five meters from the line, and then after opting to kick to the corner after a further penalty, Irish were reduced to 14-men when Thorpe saw yellow for slowing the ball down.

Eventually the green Irish wall of defence which had stood firm for over 10 minutes broke down. After one unsuccessful appeal to the video referee, scrum-half Michael Claassens broke from second phase ball off the back of a scrum to score.

Barkley then took the West Countrysiders into the lead - converting Claassens’ try and shortly after slotting another penalty to put his side in front for the first time in the game, 17-19, and with the momentum firmly on their side.

Toby Booth turned to his bench and brought on the experience of Clarke Dermody, Bob Casey and Seilala Mapusua, which made an instant impact.

Topsy Ojo broke through a weak tackle in midfield to run in under the posts from an attacking Irish line-out and restore the home side’s lead. Bowden, who moved to fly-half with the removal of Malone while Ryan Lamb remained on the bench, kicked the conversion in front of the posts and the Madejski was instantly lifted.

But it was Bath who hit back next with a penalty bringing them to within a kick of victory at 24-22 and with eight minutes remaining of the match.

Irish were turned over on their 10-meter line after a strong Bath scrum, who used the possession to move themselves to within drop-kickable range. But another infringement left the England centre with a simple penalty to take victory and leave visibly frustrated Booth and his Irish coaching staff scratching their heads as to how they managed to throw away the game.