BATH fly-half Butch James' woes in front of goal continued at the Madejski Stadium – he missed five from five attempts in the defeat to Gloucester last weekend – and was off-target with his first two kicks at goal today, writes Matt Cain.

But his quick thinking caught Irish out on seven minutes. With scrum-half Michael Claassens lining up three forwards to take the ball into contact five metres out, James sneaked up and collected a long, cut out pass from his fellow South African to score.

James finally landed a penalty on 19 minutes, slotting the three points to put the visitors 8-0 ahead after Irish had strayed offside.

And that was all the 29-year-old needed to restore his confidence momentarily. For, on 24 minutes, James perfectly dissected the uprights with a penalty from the touchline.

Yet he woefully screwed another shot at goal on 29 minutes before skipper Michael Lipman instructed wing Jack Cuthbert to aim at the sticks two minutes later.

The winger, who had kicked in pre-season matches, put Bath 14-0 clear before they were reduced to 14 men with Alex Crcokett's 33rd minute sin binning.

Bath did well to withstand a barrage of Irish attacks but could not prevent prop Alex Corbisiero from burrowing over in the second minute of first half injury-time.

Fly-half Eoghan Hickey, who was off-target with his three earlier penalties, missed the conversion before Cuthbert landed another long range penalty just before the break.