Bath bar way for London Irish

WILLIE ANDERSON took his London Irish side to Bath yesterday afternoon for today's match, a trip that looked as futile as going Christmas shopping with an expired Barclaycard.

No disrespect to the Exiles, and the Recreation Ground isn't quite the citadel it used to be, but Bath have not been beaten in the Pilkington Cup there for six years, since Dean Richards, in his memorable phrase "burrowed in the mud like a mole" all afternoon and Leicester beat the then cup-holders 12-0.

The only all-First Division tie of this fifth round may be English rugby's equivalent of staring down the barrel of a gun for the Irish but Anderson, one-time Ireland lock and captain, is used to meeting challenges head-on.

Something of a character in his playing days, Anderson once gained notoriety when he marched his Ireland side up to the noses of Wayne Shelford's All Blacks while they we performing their ritual `haka' before a game at Lansdowne Road.

"Yes, of course it'll be difficult.

Bath have excellent players in every position, the game's on their own ground and they'll be 10,000 screaming people there. But there's no reason why we can't win.

A month ago Anderson left Ulster, where he had been director of rugby at Dungannon, to join London Irish in the same capacity. He signed a two-year contract after taking over the reins from the former England centre Clive Woodward, whose last months at Sunbury were torrid, to say the least.

Woodward resigned during the summer in a committee-room row over his lack of Irish ancestry. He was persuaded to stay on but found coaching a newly professionalised club and holding down a job incompatible, and after introducing Anderson to the Exiles he left for good.

Meanwhile, the Exiles have been losing league matches at an alarming rate. On the second weekend of the season they beat Northampton, alongside whom they had been promoted to League One in the summer, with no little verve and passion at Sunbury. But they have lost all eight of their other league games and there they are anchored at the foot of the division alongside Orrell and West Hartlepool, in a division from which three clubs at least will be relegated next spring.

The Exiles have imported some of the best forwards Ireland has to offer, Jeremy Davidson, Victor Costello and Gabriel Fulcher, but, like the national side, they have become good lasers.

Anderson is determined to break this habit. "Since I came here I've discovered that everyone is determined to do what's necessary to turn things around. There is major potential here and there's no reason why we can't get into a winning sequence. I'm spending 100 per cent of my time coaching at the moment but I want to get the development of players right. We want to keep the Irish ethos here. There will always be Irish players in England looking to play at a top club and it's my job to make sure they come here.

On the surface, Anderson, who has been an assistant coach with Ireland and has made no secret of his desire to have his country's top job, would appear too laid-back to instill a ruthless regime at Sunbury. After that game against the All Blacks in 1989, which Ireland lost 23-6 incidentally, the captain gave an after-dinner speech in which he said rugby union should be put in perspective. A friend of his had recently died in the Troubles. That was important, not losing a game of rugby.

"I still think that way. You have to keep work, family and friends in perspective. The job is important, you give it your all and you need a professional approach and a sense of balance."

And Anderson can be ruthless as his opponents on the field discovered. The number eight, Victor Costello, dropped to the bench for this game, has also discovered this to his cost.

Fulcher will be missing from the second row today after injuring his wrist in Ireland's defeat by Australia last month. It is a body-blow for the Irish but there is a ray of hope. Bath, cup winners 10 times in 13 seasons, have off-the -field problems of their own, with their coach Brian Ashton taking a week off to consider his future after an uneasy relationship with the club's director of rugby, John Hall.

The former England flanker Andy Robinson, who has helped with the coaching duties this week in Ashton's absence, shrugs off their troubles. "We've always had internal arguments down here, especially when Jack RoweIl was coach. But what we have learned to do is blank the off-field stuff when the whistle goes. Players and officials live on the edge down at Bath."

Anderson will be hoping to push Bath over the edge today.