Bath survived a late rally from London Welsh to earn themselves a 40-25 win at the Recreation Ground in the Aviva Premiership this afternoon.
Matt Banahan, Carl Fearns, Semesa Rokoduguni all went over in the first half for the hosts, with Horacio Agulla and Michael Claassens adding two more tries after the break.
Seb Jewell added the visitors' only try in the second half, with Alex Davies kicking 20 points for Welsh.
The home side got off to the perfect start, when Banahan dived over in the corner after storming through the defence inside the opening five minutes.
Bath doubled their lead less than 10 minutes later after playing for the lineout leading to Dominic Day offloading to Fearns, who peeled away to score the home side's second try of the afternoon.
Bath further extended their lead on the 25-minute mark, when Stephen Donald cleanly kicked a penalty from the 22 to make it 13-0, having missed two earlier conversions.
London Welsh finally got some points on the board just moments later, when Davies converted a penalty after Bath were found guilty of an offside call.
Davies added another penalty eight minutes later, after being awarded an advantage to reduce the deficit to 13-6.
He made it three in a row just moments later, after Bath were penalised for carrying, allowing Davies to kick home to make it 13-9.
However, Bath added a third try moments before half time, when Rokoduguni raced over from the 10-metre line off the pass of Donald, who successfully converted the kick to give the hosts a 20-6 lead at the break.
Davies added another penalty just after the break after Bath were penalised for having their hands in the ruck, before adding another penalty minutes later to make it 20-15.
After a good spell from the visitors, the home side restored their comfortable lead, firstly through a Donald penalty.
Bath then found another try after Rokoduguni beat three Welsh players from his own 10-metre line before offloading to Agulla to score. Tom Heathcote then added the extras.
However, the visitors ensured a tense finish to the match after Bath failed to hold off the Welsh attack and Jewell went over from close range before added the conversion.
Heathcote added another penalty just before Claassens sniped over to add a fifth and final try for Bath. The former put his conversion between the posts to end the game at 40-25.
Matt Cotton
