JOE MADDOCK has called for Bath to go on the offensive at London Irish today.

Last season's Guinness Premiership semi-finalists, who played arguably the finest attacking rugby of any team last term, inexplicably retreated to a defensive style after taking a 5-3 lead against Gloucester last weekend.

They went on to trail 21-5, before a late spell of moving the ball wide and challenging the opposition defence sparked a fightback which eventually saw them go down 21-17.

And winger Maddock, who has made a fine start to the new season by scoring in each of his side's league games so far, wants to see Bath attack from the outset today.

"I think if we had played how we did in the last 10-15 minutes for the whole game last week, we probably would have won by 20 or 30 points," said Maddock.

"Instead, I think we got into the Gloucester game-plan where we just played kick tennis to see who made the mistake. Unfortunately, it was either us making the mistake or us putting in a bad kick.

"We just got caught up in that sort of game, whereas we should have just focused on the way we play and the way we have for the last 18 months – and that means attacking when it was on to attack.

"On Saturday, we definitely need to get into that mindset of knowing we are a good enough team with good enough skills to run the ball if it's on.

"We showed in the last 10-15 minutes against Gloucester how we can play, so we've got to be prepared to go out and play like that from the first minute this weekend."

Maddock is finally beginning to get the credit he deserves as a deadly Premiership winger, having taken at least two seasons to settle following his arrival from Canterbury Crusaders after a series of niggling hamstring injuries.

But the 29-year-old is merely happy to be keeping up with some of his club's own youngsters, with his regular back-three colleagues these days being 22-year-old Nick Abendanon and 21-year-old Matt Banahan.

With Banahan missing today's game through injury, another 21-year-old in Jack Cuthbert comes into the No 11 shirt.

"I'm just happy that for an old guy I can still get out there, score tries and compete with some of the young guys," said Maddock.

"It's nice to not have all those little niggles clouding over you all the time. I got through my first pre-season in four years this summer. So I'm pretty happy with the nick that I'm in at the moment – I'm in pretty decent shape and playing some decent rugby."

Banahan and No 8 Jonny Fa'amatuainu have joined Bath's ever-growing injury list, which also includes Danny Grewcock, Andy Beattie, Ryan Davis, Daniel Browne and Chris Goodman.

And head coach Steve Meehan has made other changes to his side, with centre Alex Crockett recalled at the expense of Tom Cheeseman, and props David Barnes and Duncan Bell brought in for David Flatman and Matt Stevens.

Former Bath star Mike Catt misses out for Irish, who have named Eoghan Hickey at fly-half.

London Irish: P Hewat; T Ojo, D Armitage, S Mapusua (capt), S Tagicakibau; E Hickey, P Richards; A Corbisiero, D Paice, F Rautenbach, N Kennedy, G Johnson, R Thorpe, S Armitage, C Hala'ufia. Reps: T Lea'aetoa, D Coetzee, N Rouse, J Fisher, A Thompstone, P Hodgson, E Seveali'i.

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, A Crockett, E Fuimaono, J Cuthbert; B James, M Claassens; D Barnes, L Mears, D Bell, J Harrison, P Short, S Hooper, M Lipman (capt), J Scaysbrook. Reps: P Dixon, D Flatman, M Stevens, J Ovens, S Bemand, S Berne, T Cheeseman.