Toby Booth struggled to find anything good to say about his London Irish side after their heaviest defeat of the season.

Exiles were outmuscled by the Bath pack and outwitted by half-backs Michael Claassens and Stephen Donald in front of a sell-out 12,000 crowd at the Rec on New Year's Day.

Booth said: "In the majority of the facets of the game they were dominant and we looked inexperienced.

"We didn't get ourselves on the front foot and made life very difficult for ourselves.

"We made some poor decisions which brought pressure on ourselves and we couldn't get out of it."

And Booth promised: "We will have a serious look at ourselves because I am bitterly disappointed for the fans that came down. We cannot be proud of what we produced."

Three times in the first half referee Martin Fox referred to the television match official to rule on what had happened in the mass of bodies after the Bath pack had driven over the visitors' line.

But only once was a try awarded, prop Anthony Perenise being judged to have touched down legally at the base of the posts.

Donald's conversion and a subsequent penalty ensured Bath went in 10-3 ahead at half-time, Irish's only points of the match coming from a Tom Homer penalty.

The rain that had turned the pitch into quagmire abated after the break, but it was Bath who continued to find the conditions to their liking, scoring two more tries.

Scrum-half Claassens finished off an 80-metre counter-attack after full-back Nick Abendanon and Tom Biggs had punished a poor chip by Exiles' replacement Adrian Jarvis.

And although Exiles' line-outs were functioning well, Bath had the upper hand in the scrum and used that superiority to earn a penalty try four minutes from time.

New Zealand's World Cup-winning fly-half Donald kicked two further conversions and two more penalties in the second half to finish with an individual tally of 15 points.

A dejected Booth said: "We have been competitive up until now, getting at least a losing bonus point from every previous game this season, and that's what makes today's scoreline even harder to take."

Exiles finished the match with 14 men after Delon Armitage was yellow carded for a late tackle on Claassens in the 81st minute.

It was the latest example of indiscipline from a player who was banned four times last year.

But Booth refused to attach any importance to the England full-back's departure.

The Exiles coach insisted he had not watched a replay of the incident, but added: "It had no bearing on the outcome.

"The game was dead and buried before that and I would rather concentrate on how we got ourselves into the situation we did."

Bath had not won in the Aviva Premiership since beating Irish 13-12 at Madejski Stadium on October 29.

To see how the game unfolded click below:

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Olly Woodburn, 13 Matt Carraro, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Michael Claassens, 1 Nathan Catt, 2 Ross Batty, 3 Anthony Perenise, 4 Dave Attwood, 5 Ryan Caldwell, 6. Andy Beattie, 7 Francois Louw (c), 8 Simon Taylor.

Replacements: 16 Will Tanner, 17 Charlie Beech, 18 David Wilson, 19 Ben Skirving, 20 Guy Mercer, 21 Chris Cook, 22 Tom Heathcote, 23 Kyle Eastmond.

London Irish: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Joe Ansbro, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Tom Homer, 10 Steven Shingler. 9 Darren Allinson; 1 Alex Corbisiero, 2 James Buckland, 3 Paulica Ion, 4 Nick Kennedy, 5 Bryn Evans, 6 Declan Danaher (c), 7 Jamie Gibson, 8 Richard Thorpe.
 
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 Clarke Dermody, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Matt Garvey, 20 Alex Gray, 21 Adam Thompstone, 22 Adrian Jarvis, 23 Paul Hodgson.