Iain Henderson calls on Ulster to produce major home reaction after disappointing start to Champions Cup campaign

It wasn’t just the fact that this was a third consecutive defeat that’s worrying for Dan McFarland’s side, but also the nature of the performance.

Apart from a four-minute period before half-time that yielded tries for Billy Burns and Nathan Doak, Ulster were second best, failing to register a single point after the break.

There were problems at the scrum, just like the previous week against Edinburgh, discipline was poor with the penalty count against Ulster in double figures and Matty Rea’s yellow card cost 12 points.

In defence, Ulster conceded five tries, missed 26 tackles and turned possession over 16 times.

Despite all of that, Ulster led 14-8 at the break and skipper Iain Henderson was disappointed with the second-half display.

“We spoke at half-time about keep doing what we are doing, that sort of foot on the throat mentality will drive that home,” he said. “I think probably our discipline, turnover rate and our set-piece in the second-half let us down on all those fronts and that is how the game got away from us so fast and so far.

“Every team makes mistakes and that is fine, but we have to make sure when we make a mistake the next thing is positive to impact the game, be it a set piece, be it open field play as we were putting ourselves under immense pressure in that second-half.

“Fair play to Bath they saw that, got their foot in the door and then turned the screw.”

Henderson knows Ulster must fix their scrum before facing Top 14 leaders Racing 92 in Belfast on Saturday night.

“Any team that wants to do something positive in rugby needs to have a good scrum,” he added. “We have a couple of guys in there that are hurting pretty hard and have taken that beating on the chin and are going to have to bounce back next week – I have no doubt that they will.

“All the front row know that they have to get their part of the game right. On top of that, the back five have to make sure that we are just not relying on them up front and that we are doing our job too, which at a few scrums was probably our fault.”

The two time British and Irish Lions tourist wants a reaction against the French side in front of their home fans.

“As a team I feel we do really well when outside pressure comes on playing with that chip on the shoulder mentality,” he said. “That is always where our team mentality has been, so going into next week we have to make sure we take what we did in the first-half really well and we take those moments that we asked to bring, but bring them for longer.

"Where we did slip up, we need to ensure that they are being pushed aside and not letting those mistakes happen.”

Joe Cokanasiga’s try and a Ben Spencer penalty gave Bath an 8-0 lead before Burns and Doak crossed for converted tries.

Bath hooker Tom Dunn went over from a driving maul five minutes into the second-half.

Spencer converted and added another penalty as Bath took control on the scoreboard.

With Rea in the sin bin, replacement prop Thomas du Toit rumbled over for the hosts on 69 minutes and England winger Cokanasiga sealed the bonus point two minutes later with his second try.

Full-back Matt Gallagher added a fifth try for the English Premiership side with Orlando Bailey converting with the final kick of the game.