London Irish coach Toby Booth refused to use a bad day at the office for his kickers as an excuse for the 20-16 home defeat to Bath.
Exiles pay for misses while Bath's kicker gets some expert help
London Irish coach Toby Booth refused to use a bad day at the office for his kickers as an excuse for the 20-16 home defeat to Bath.
Peter Hewat and Eoghan Hickey combined to miss six shots at the posts as the Exiles suffered a second defeat in three matches.
While Bath's Butch James was far from perfect with the boot he did land two efforts, helping the visitors clinch a narrow victory.
"I know the boys work hard on their kicking, as I know Butch James does as well and they will probably take that very personally today," Booth said.
Working hard
"They will be working hard to make sure their percentages are much better in the next match than what we saw today."
Having come within one kick of a win over Leicester last weekend, London Irish could well now own a perfect record after three games.
"Everyone talks about the margins in the Guinness Premiership and we have learnt that at the sharp end for two weeks in a row," Booth acknowledged.
"I keep saying that we are in here to compete and I was very happy with the second half that we got ourselves in a position to compete. The more times you get consistency, the chances are you will come out on top."
Bath boss Steve Meehan revealed that South African James will have sessions with Welsh legend Neil Jenkins to work on his kicking.
Snapping it
"While the results have not gone Butch's way, there is not a lot wrong," he said. "He has just got to take a bit more time over the ball. He is snapping at it."
"He just needs to nail his approach and he will be ok. I'm sure, after spending a bit of time with Neil on Tuesday, he will be better for it.
"Neil is here for one session on Tuesday mornings and that has been okayed by the Welsh Rugby Union and Warren Gatland (national coach)."
At least James' misses didn't prove costly, with Meehan delighted with his side's performance on their travels.
"It's not always easy to come on the road and win, regardless of the match. I thought we played well in the first-half and we tried to be very positive," he added.
"In the second-half, we scrapped like hell to keep Irish out so it was a good, courageous performance."
