Head coach Mike Ford hails Bath Rugby"s rampant first-half against London Irish

Bath Rugby head coach Mike Ford hailed his side’s first-half display as they racked up an impressive Aviva Premiership bonus-point win over London Irish at The Rec yesterday.

The hosts quickly put last week’s 31-17 defeat at league leaders Saracens to bed to run in five tries in a rampant first half.

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   Bath Rugby centre Jonathan Joseph opens the scoring against old club London Irish PICTURE: Mervyn Clingan / TakingPictures-Sport.co.uk

   
   

Jonathan Joseph opened the scoring with a try against his former club, while Guy Mercer (2) and Rob Webber also crossed the whitewash. Fly-half George Ford grabbed a sensational solo touchdown to go alongside eight points with the boot.

Head coach Ford was concerned at how his side let their foot off the gas after the break, however, with Irish winning the second half 8-0 despite playing with 14 men for 20 minutes.

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“We were very good in the first half. Last week was disappointing and I thought we came out and put that to bed very early in the game,” said Ford.

“To score five tries in one half is very good. The second half was a bit scrappy, at the ruck area and some decisions, but you ride with it and we are very pleased with the five points.

“We’ve got a five-point win in the Premiership and I’m not going to smack that in the face – we are happy with it.

“It’s very hard to keep up that intensity as a team but that’s where we’ve got to get to – we’ve got to play for the full 80 minutes.

“There are still blocks of frustration because you want perfection but it’s very rare that you will get that at all in rugby because there is always some guy trying to knock your head off, so it makes your job very difficult.

“And you’ve got to give respect to the opposition. I know [London Irish boss] Brian [Smith] very well and he would have said the right things at half-time.

“They’ve got their pride to restore a little bit but that’s where we have got to get to if we want to win things. We’ve got to play for 80 minutes.

“We’re a little bit disappointed as they were down to 14 men for a while and we didn’t control the space for people like JJ, Roko and Kyle to exploit. It’s positive because we’ve got a lot to work on.”

Ford’s attention has already turned to Friday night’s trip to Sale Sharks and Bath are sweating over the fitness of three players who limped off at The Rec yesterday.

Captain for the day Dave Attwood lasted just seven minutes before damaging his ribs, while Anthony Watson and Dominic Day went off having injured their legs.

“There were a lot of injuries. We’ll assess them tomorrow and try to keep the players fresh for Friday,” said Ford. “I’ve no idea time-wise yet, they’ll have a scan and we won’t know until Monday.

“The key for us is move on quickly, not dwell on it too much, enjoy the night and then it’s a big game on Friday.

“I thought Sale played really well [against Northampton, a 33-14 defeat] in terms of their attitude and desire, so it’s going to be a tough game in Manchester.”

Head coach Mike Ford hails Bath Rugby"s rampant first-half against London Irish