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Assistant coach Brad Davis was thrilled to see his London Irish side finally end their 14-year losing streak at the Recreation Ground – even though it could make life difficult as a resident of Bath.
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The Australian was on Bath’s bench as their defence and attack coach when the Exiles last tasted victory there, but this time around helped mastermind a 25-10 win which saw London Irish move up to fourth in the Gallagher Premiership.
Davis still lives in the city but admits the Exiles’ result was nevertheless a satisfying one.
“The last time we came away from here with a win was 2009 and I was coaching Bath that day,” he said.
“It’s ironic now that the tides have turned. We’ll enjoy the bus journey back – well I won’t because I’m still living in Bath! Then we’ll start preparing on Monday to face Leicester.”
Tries by Paddy Jackson, Ben White and Bernhard van Rensburg wrested control of the game as Bath had three players sin-binned, leaving them with 13-men at one stage in the second half. Jackson also contributed two conversions and two penalties.
Try-scorer White was brought on after half an hour to replace the ineffectual Joe Powell at scrum-half, and Davis felt that swayed the game in London Irish’s favour.
He said: “We made a change at scrum-half because it wasn’t happening for Joe. We made it early which was the right decision. In saying that, we were under the cosh for a lot of the first 40 minutes and Bath put us under a huge amount of pressure.
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“Their kicking game pinned us into our 22 and we couldn’t get out. Our exits were poor. The big moment for us, because we lived off scraps, was that we were able to limit Bath to 10 points and still come in with a 12-10 lead.
“That was huge for us but the game in the Premiership now is all about little moments. They missed a kick right in front from 30 metres out. We go down to the other end and make it 15-10. These swings in momentum are huge.
“In the second 40 we played in the right areas. We were able to put pressure on, resulting in a few yellows, and we hammered it home.”
Unusually, Bath were kept scoreless in the second half after a try by Josh Bayliss, converted by Ben Spencer, who also kicked a penalty.
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And head of rugby Johann van Graan admitted his disappointment, with his team now bottom of the table ahead of the home derby match against Bristol next Friday.
Van Graan cited three main factors in the defeat, saying: “First, you have to kick a penalty in front of the posts which is going to put you one point ahead.
“If you concede three yellow cards you’re going to lose the game, and then our line-outs, which took away so much momentum from us. Those are three things that we can control.
“In the first 38 minutes we controlled the game. Then they scored on the stroke of half-time.
“You are going to struggle with 14 players and certainly if you are playing with 13. We are getting better collectively but won’t win a rugby game if we concede three yellow cards.”
