LONDON Irish ended their Aviva Premiership campaign with a heavy 63-19 defeat to Bath on Saturday.

Converted tries from Toby Faletau and Cooper Vuna had the hosts 14-0 up inside 10 minutes and Matt Banahan then crossed to extend the lead, Rhys Priestland adding the extras.

James Wilson crossed to secure the Bath bonus point and with Elliot Stooke also going over, Bath led 35-0 at the break.

Converted scores from Banahan and Wilson extended the lead to 49-0, but Josh McNally went over to put Irish on the board.

Banahan completed his hat-trick and Will Vaughan also went over as Bath moved 63-5 in front.

It was Irish who had the last word, however, young wing Ben Loader going over for a try which Greig Tonks converted, before McNally added a second to his tally.

David Paice – playing his final game as Irish’s most-capped ever player – knocked over the conversion.

Head coach Declan Kidney paid tribute to Paice, saying: “David has been a fantastic servant to London Irish, making 290 appearances and that’s some amount of games to play for one club.”

“You look at the way that the baton has passed on and it’s great to see the likes of Ben Loader coming through.

“We had a young side out there from the start, with one or two more experienced heads and Saturday’s game will stand the youngsters in good stead going into the off season.”

He continued: “We’ll take things on the chin and take a good look at everything before we break for the summer. When you get to this stage of the season and you’re playing teams at the top end with things to play for, they’re always going to be fully focussed and determined to do the job in hand.

“That shows us the level we need to get to as ultimately, it’s where we want to get back to.”