Half-time: Bath 17 London Irish 0. Bath took a commanding lead into half-time of their Guinness Premiership top-four clash with London Irish.

Three first-half tries – and some solid defence – have given Steve Meehan's men a comfortable lead at the break.

After dominating early possession and territory, they opened the scoring on 12 minutes through lock Stuart Hooper.

Irish full-back Tom Homer made a mess of Butch James' up-and-under – and Bath quickly moved the play wide, with Hooper going over after Matt Banahan had been stopped just short.

Nine minutes later, they added a second try when prop David Flatman's break in front of the posts punched a hole in the Irish defence, Alex Crockett slapped Michael Claassens' pass on and Banahan raced over out wide.

And Bath took a firmer grip on the game nine minutes before the break. James kicked possession away, only for Topsy Ojo to send an equally poor kick back up-field.

Irish No 8 Chris Hala'ufia briefly grabbed possession, but soon dropped the ball, allowing Crockett to pick up and launch a counter-attack.

He found Joe Maddock, who in turn released Banahan, and the winger's winding run paved the way to open a gap for Maddock to score. James, having missed his first two conversion attempts, nailed the third to see Bath into a 17-0 half-time lead.

Bath: J Maddock; A Higgins, A Crockett (capt), E Fuimaono, M Banahan; B James, M Claassens; D Flatman, P Dixon, D Bell, J Harrison, S Hooper, A Beattie, J Fa'amatuainu, D Browne. Reps: R Hawkins, A Jarvis, P Short, J Scaysbrook, S Bemand, S Berne, N Abendanon.

Scorers: Tries – Hooper, Banahan, Maddock. Con – James.

London Irish: T Homer; T Ojo, E Seveali'i, S Mapusua, A Thompstone; S Geraghty, P Hodgson; C Dermody, J Buckland, A Corbisiero, J Hudson, B Casey (capt), R Thorpe, S Armitage, C Hala'ufia. Reps: T Lea'aetoa, D Coetzee, G Johnson, D Danaher, P Richards, A Lalanne, E Hickey.

Ref: C White.