COACH Stuart Hooper was pleased with Bath's workmanlike performance in the 26-22 Anglo-Welsh Cup win over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

Fly-half Freddie Burns, back from a three-week ban after a tip tackle offence against Worcester, kicked 16 of his side's points via four penalties two conversion, with centre Ben Tapuai and wing Levi Davis scoring the visitors' tries.

However, Bath leaked four tries as Irish gave a good account of themselves and would have won the match but for some wayward conversions.

Flanker Max Northcote-Green crossed the whitewash twice while skipper and hooker David Paice and wing Alex Lewington scored the other tries. Scrum-half Brendan McKibbin kicked their solitary conversion.

The victory put Bath at the top of Pool One after Wasps and Gloucester both lost, with Cardiff Blues yet to begin the competition.

Former Bath captain Hooper, now their player development director, said: "I am really pleased for the lads. There are a lot of new lads coming into the team this week, some who have been injured and Fred from suspension.

"Although today was not the perfect performance, they worked hard for each other and got the result.

"Our ability to get out of our half pleased me. We went through moments when we didn't do it particularly well but then found a way of doing it and solving the problems."

The Anglo-Welsh Cup was also a chance to see young talent in serious first-team action.

"What you have to understand is that these guys train for 48 weeks of the year and some of them don't get to play that often," Hooper said.

"That is a big thing for me that someone like Josh Baylis, who did brilliantly today, gets a chance to play in the first team."

But discipline was a decisive factor in Irish's demise and forwards coach George Skivington said: "The positives were when we executed the things we talked about during the week. We made a lot of uncharacteristic errors and we were still in the game.

"It is difficult because emotions run high and it is easy to look for the negatives when you have lost a game you thought you probably should have won.

"But we will take it apart and there were some good learnings from it."