TOBY BOOTH and Mike Catt, the young new coaching duo at the helm of London Irish, will both turn grey, or lose their hair completely, if their team continues to play like they did here, virtually gift-wrapping victory to Catt’s old club, Bath.

London Irish conceded the softest of tries at the start, gave penalties away throughout, and their kickers, with a return of two successes from nine attempts, proved that cows backsides are in no danger of banjos in the Reading area.

Such woeful kicking would have been forgotten had Eoghan Hickey nailed the one that mattered, a conversion that would have put the home side ahead for the first time in the 77th minute. A try by Elvis Seveali’i handed the Exiles a potential get out of jail card, but Hickey missed and Jack Cuthbert banged over a last-minute penalty for Bath to rub salt into the wound.

Butch James crossed for Bath’s only try, in the seventh minute, a score that will have left the Irish coaches tearing their hair out. Joe Maddock attacked down the right, Michael Lipman set up a ruck a yard short of the home line and James was waiting right on the gain line when Michael Claassens fired out a flat pass.

The only cheer from the Reading faithful came when James missed the conversion, followed by groans when Peter Hewat hit the post with his first penalty attempt barely a minute later. The Australian badly scuffed his second attempt after the Bath forwards were penalised for diving over the ball at a ruck, something their coaches had spent all week telling them not to do.

James finally hit the target with his third attempt in the 19th minute. That made it 8-0 to the visitors, but they would have been further ahead if Dave Pearson had played advantage when James nudged a perfectly weighted grubber kick behind the Irish defence and into their unguarded ingoal area.

Still struggling to get out of their own half, the Irish forwards were penalised for holding a man back next, and this time James drilled the penalty to keep the pressure on in front of England’s new attack coach, Brian Smith, watching the England-qualified players from his two former clubs.

There were plenty of current and aspiring internationals on display, but none really put their hands up, apart from one dazzling second-half run by Topsy Ojo that his London Irish teammates really should have turned into a try.

Name a way of giving a penalty away and the Irish found it. Not releasing was their next offence, but James miscued horribly. Jack Cuthbert took the next one, and the wing nailed it confidently to put Bath 14-0 ahead.

With half an hour on the clock, the Exiles were struggling to get their hands on the ball, never mind into their stride or into Bath’s half of the pitch. The home side also tried swapping kickers when Alex Crockett, the Bath centre, was carded for punching. But even though Hickey took the kick five yards infield from where the incident took place, he still missed.

With four minutes of the half left, Irish launched their first meaningful attack and sustained the pressure long enough to cross the Bath line. The breakthrough came from a five-yard scrum, with Peter Richards launching men down the blind side, where Alex Corbisiero, an England Under 20 prop, forced his way over for the try. It was no surprise that Hickey missed the touchline conversion. Bath stuck with Cuthbert when the Irish transgressed again, penalised this time by Ashley Wray, who had just replaced the injured Pearson. Cuthbert repaid his captain’s faith to give Bath a deserved 17-5 lead at the break – unlike Hickey, who missed again three minutes later.

Hewat took the next one and nailed it, which seemed to galvanise the Irish as stand-in captain Seilala Mapusua came within a last-ditch tackle of scoring after some skilful interpassing between Hewat and Sailosi Tagicakibau down the left wing.

Hickey was next to the tee, after Hewat was replaced by Seveali’i, but even though his penalty went over, and Sevealii scored, Irish fell short of snatching the match – and meeting their high expectations.

Star man: Seilala Mapusua (London Irish)

Referee: D Pearson (RFU)

Attendance: 8,221

Scorers: London Irish: Tries: Corbisiero 29min, Seveali’i 78min Pens: Hewat, Hickey
Bath:Try: James 7min. Pens: James (2), Cuthbert (3)

Yellow card: Bath: Alex Crockett 30min

London Irish: P Hewat (E Sevealii 56min); T Ojo, D Armitage, S Mapusua (capt), S Tagicakibau; E Hickey, P Richards (P Hodgson 59min); A Corbisiero (J Fisher 70min), D Paice(D Coetzee 59min), F Rautenbach(T Lea’aetoa 62min), N Kennedy, G Johnson, R Thorpe; C Hala'ufia, S Armitage

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, A Crockett (T Cheeseman 65min), E Fuimaono-Sapolu (S Berne 56min), J Cuthbert; B James, M Claassens (S Bemand 63min); D Barnes (D Flatman 63min), L Mears (P Dixon 55min), D Bell (M Stevens 55min), J Harrison, P Short, S Hooper, J Scaysbrook, M Lipman (capt)