Living up to the deafening advance drum roll was always going to be difficult but at least Danny Cipriani is back in business. While the returning fly-half did not exactly take High Wycombe by storm last night on his reappearance just four months after a serious ankle injury, he never at any stage resembled a man who had mislaid all his special talents over the intervening period.

Most importantly of all he survived his comeback unscathed which, in this particular week, is no small consideration. What the visibly rusty 20-year-old could not do, however, was inspire Wasps to victory over a Bath side who would have kicked themselves all the way back to the West Country had they failed to clinch victory having scored four tries away from home.

The hosts ultimately paid the penalty for a slapdash opening quarter, with the all-round game of Matt Stevens, the craft of Michael Claassens and the pace of the visiting backs ultimately too much for Wasps to cope with.

Cipriani, back in his familiar black headguard, was simply glad to have got this fixture out of the way without mishap. By the time he was taken off after 53 minutes and replaced by Jeremy Staunton he had contributed three penalties and a conversion, offered one tantalising glimpse of his inventive vision in the build-up to Riki Flutey's 38th-minute try and spent a large chunk of the game defending in the outside centre channel.

"I thought he could be relatively pleased with his first appearance," said the Bath head coach, Steve Meehan.

The home coach Shaun Edwards was rather less impressed with referee Sean Davey, whom he felt had cost Wasps victory by ruling that a Cipriani penalty attempt had not sailed through the uprights despite both touch judges - or referee's assistants, as they are now technically called - having raised their flags.

"I've never ever seen that before," complained Edwards, who argued that three extra points would have transformed Wasps' decision-making late in the game. Cipriani, for his part, was insistent the ball had crept inside the inside of the right post. Whatever else Wasps achieve this season, they should invest in a taller set of poles.

One man, however, does not make a team and Wasps had begun like a side with a collective death wish. Their first-quarter defence was suicidally loose and Bath had two tries on the board inside 15 minutes, the first just six minutes into the game after Nick Abendanon's up-and-under had been spilled by Cipriani. Pieter Dixon snaffled the loose ball and Bath surged upfield for Claassens to snipe over from close range.

Worse was to follow when the Wasps captain Raphael Ibanez allowed the rampaging Stevens to slip through his grasp 10 metres out and the England prop barged past a despairing Cipriani to score the visitors' second.

There was almost a third after the rangy Bath No8 Johnny Fa'amatuainu escaped the normally rock-solid Joe Worsley, who was subsequently replaced by James Haskell with barely half an hour gone. Edwards could be seen testing the perimeter advertising boards with his toe-caps.

Given the one-way traffic, it was a minor miracle that Wasps found themselves ahead at the interval. Cipriani began to look more purposeful and the impact on Flutey's game outside him was immediate with the pair combining sweetly to put the centre in the clear 40 metres out.

The supporting Tom Palmer was brilliantly hauled down by Abendanon but Flutey popped up again to score at the posts. Cipriani converted and added his third penalty in first-half injury-time to make it 16-12 at the break.

Yet from the moment Dixon barrelled over in the 45th minute, only the goalkicking frailties of Butch James threatened to cost his team the game. Another sharp break by Abendanon put Joe Maddock over in the right corner for the bonus point, with Tom Rees' response insufficient to stop Bath going top of the table. They set out to play some rugby and the game, thankfully, was the better for it.

There was also no repetition of that recurring blot on the landscape, the uncontested scrum. Ian McGeechan has been outraged by what he described as the "highly unacceptable" allegation by Sky's commentators that Wasps had been guilty of sharp practice at Welford Road last Friday in withdrawing both of their starting props, suggesting such claims were "very unprofessional". What no one can dispute, however, is that Wasps have now lost four of their first five league games. Cipriani's labours have only just begun.

London Wasps Voyce; Sackey, Waldouck, Flutey, Lewsey; Cipriani, Reddan; Payne, Ibanez (capt; Webber, 64), Vickery, Shaw, Palmer (Birkett, 73), Worsley (Haskell, 31), Rees, Hart.

Tries Flutey, Rees. Cons Cipriani, Staunton. Pens Cipriani 3.

Bath Abendanon; Maddock, Crockett, Berne, Cuthbert (Higgins, 63); James, Claassens; Barnes (Bell, 63), Dixon (Mears, 63), Stevens, Harrison, Short, Hooper, Lipman (capt; Scaysbrook, h/t), Fa'amatuainu.

Tries Claassens, Stevens, Dixon, Maddock. Cons James 2.

Pen James.

Referee S Davey (England). Attendance 9,052.

Cipriani watch

55sec Receives first pass, bumps into team-mate Simon Shaw and is tackled into touch

4min Rolls nice diagonal ball into touch in Bath 22

5min Drops Nick Abendanon's high kick, Pieter Dixon picks up and Michael Claasens opens the scoring for Bath

9min Miscues penalty kick to touch which rolls dead. Elementary error

15min Fails to stop Matt Stevens from barging over for Bath's second try

17min Forces a turnover by dislodging ball from grasp of Johnny Fa'amatuainu

18min Slots first penalty of the season from point-blank range

23min Slips on backside while shaping to make a tackle. Sums up Wasps' early travails

34min Thinks he has landed a second successful kick but referee Sean Davey overrules his flag-raising assistants

36 min Safely registers a second penalty

38min Well-timed pass to Riki Flutey sets up Wasps' first try. Conversion puts the home team in front

40min (+5) Drills over 45-metre penalty to give Wasps a 16-12 half-time advantage

Half-time

45min Involved in frantic defensive rearguard action but Bath score third try to regain the lead

52min Referee spots a shoulder charge aimed at Butch James and awards Bath a penalty

53min Replaced, still in one piece, by Jeremy Staunton