Sam Burgess stars as Bath hammer London Irish
Last Updated: 24/04/15 11:34pm
Sam Burgess was the star of the show for Bath as they hammered London Irish 43-18 at the Recreation Ground to stay in the hunt for a home semi-final spot.
The former rugby league man was one of five try-scorers with Leroy Houston, Jonathan Joseph, Matt Banahan and Semesi Rokoduguni also crossing the whitewash, while George Ford kicked four penalties and three conversions.
The Exiles were ahead at half-time thanks to Tom Court's try, but Bath were in imperious form in the second period and coasted to victory.
England fly-half Ford kicked Bath into an early 6-0 lead as Irish were caught infringing at the breakdown and scrum.
Chris Noakes replied for the visitors on 15 minutes but Ford punished a needless off-the-ball block by David Paice almost from the restart.
Irish had Jebb Sinclair sin-binned on 34 minutes after a string of penalty offences, but the 14 men struck on the stroke of half-time to take an unlikely 13-12 lead.
Ireland prop Court forced his way over after Luke Narraway had got the Bath defence on the back foot, with Noakes adding the conversion.
It took Bath just six minutes of the second half to get their act together, however, as Houston peeled off an untidy scrum to touch down.
Five minutes later, Jonathan Joseph raced away to score from his own chip and chase, with Ford converting again for a 26-13 advantage.
The third Bath try followed almost immediately as Kyle Eastmond’s long pass left Banahan an easy route to the corner.
The bonus point was wrapped up on the hour as Burgess finished off a catch-and-drive, and Ford landed his seventh successful kick out of eight to convert.
Irish replacement Dan Leo was sent to the bin on 63 minutes and Rokoduguni dived over in the corner nine minutes later, with Blair Cowan grabbing a late consolation score for the visitors.
