London Irish's defence are well drilled and are just not letting any of the Bath forwards through. Sam Burgess, playing at flanker, almost wriggled through but three players were on him like a shot.

But despite this, the Blue, Black and Whites manage to win a disputable five-metre scrum.

These scrums keep on turning into penalties for Bath. Once more, the Exiles are penalised for collapsing the scrum, and the hosts spurn the option of three points to kick for the try-line.

Image source, Getty Images

There's one man who's been right in the thick of this game already, and that's George Ford. The England fly-half breaks through three London Irish defenders, but his long pass out wide to Semesa Rokoduguni was not held as the winger slipped when he tried to catch the ball.

He had a lot of space out there.

That three-point gap really did not last long. More London Irish indiscipline leaves George Ford with another kicking chance, which he gobbles up, no qualms about it.

The Irish side have their reward and quieten The Rec crowd when Luke Pearce adjudges Bath to be infringing at the scrum, leaving Chris Noakes a simple kick over to bring his side within three points.

Who said Bath would walk this game?

Ohhhhhh Tom Guest is not happy with that! London Irish push hard and have the ball over the line after the scrum breaks down, but referee Luke Pearce pulls it back for another scrum for an infringement.

London Irish and in particular Darren Allinson looked really impressive there, offloading beautifully, but they are held up by a mean Bath defence and earn a five-metre scrum for their troubles.

After a slow start, London Irish are pressing their superiors in the table, and Darren Allinson takes a quick kick - going close to the line. Can they get it over?

London Irish finally have a bit of possession in the Bath half, and Chris Noakes sends a long cross-field kick to Topsy Ojo, who catches and offloads to Blair Cowan, but he loses the ball when tackled by Leroy Houston.

Image source, Getty Images

Ford is spot on with the penalty from all of 45 yards. Bath are already exerting their authority on a London Irish side who will not be impressing incoming new boss Tom Coventry.

First scrum of the night goes in favour of Bath, and the Irish front row are judged to infringe, leaving George Ford with a very kickable chance from the right.

Bath get the early penalty after an infringement at the breakdown on Matt Banahan by Tom Guest. George Ford's kick is absolutely straight through the posts and his side have an early lead.

Referee Luke Pearce blows his whistle and London Irish get us under way. Game on.

Steven Pipe:, external @bathrugby to beat @LiRFC tonight. This season Bath will make the top four.

The teams are a'coming. The strips are what you'd expect. Bath are in Blue, Black and White, while London Irish are in their traditional Green.

London Irish: Fenby; Ojo, Griffin, Mulchrone, Lewington; Noakes, Allinson; Court, Paice, Palframan, Skivington (capt), Sinclair, Narraway, Cowan, Guest.

Replacements: Ellis, Hagan, Aulika, Leo, Cox, O'Leary, Geraghty, Sheridan.

Bath: Watson; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Eastmond, Banahan; Ford, Stringer; James, Webber, Palma-Newport, Hooper (capt), Day, Burgess, Louw, Houston.

Replacements: Batty, Auterac, Lahiff, Attwood, Garvey, Fearns, Cook, Devoto.

A final reminder of the two teams tonight, as Sam Burgess makes his second start for Bath's first team at flanker.

Remember that you can listen to BBC local radio commentary via the Live Coverage tab near the top of this page.

Both BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC Radio Bristol are at the game, so you can take your pick.

Bizarrely Bath are still out on the pitch doing their warm ups... Do they realise there's four minutes to kick-off?