Ford: Rhys was brilliant
Priestland and fellow new arrival at the Rec, Niko Matawalu, notched their first Bath tries late on as 14-man London Irish wilted in the latter stages in a 45-14 defeat.
Brendan McKibbin had been red carded for a stamp on Henry Thomas in a first half that saw Leroy Houston and Ollie Devoto cross for the visitors.
Alafoti Fa'osiliva and Kyle Eastmond's quickfire efforts to open the second half secured the bonus point for Bath, while Exiles tries through Scott Steele and Fergus Mulchrone proved consolations.
But Ford admits ill-discipline stopped the day from being a perfect one for Bath.
"The way Rhys has fitted in, the way we've got him to go to the line, he's getting there with Kyle (Eastmond) and George (Ford) and you can see what will happen with those three now," he said.
"I thought Rhys was brilliant, he's really settled in well.
"We couldn't handle their drive, I think the discipline of our defence was poor, and then the turning point (McKibbin's red card) was massive.
"That turnaround is good fortune for us, bad luck for them.
"I thought in the first off we should have kicked on more, at 17-7 we should have been on more.
"We're pleased after everything that's happened, we got some good tries from the backs and looking forward to Toulon now."
But Ford, who saw Devoto and Fa'osiliva sin-binned added: "We were the best disciplined side last season and had the least sin-bins in the competition, but how many sin bins have we had this year already?"
The Exiles head into their European schedule without a win in Premiership, but head coach Tom Coventry is not panicking with his work having only just begun.
"I would have liked to have got a couple of bonus points from some of our losses and obviously I want to win but you have to be realistic about where we are," he said.
"I haven't come over here to sit around and lose, we've just got to be careful that we don't get ahead of ourselves, we're a team that has been underachievers and we're desperate to prove ourselves in the competition.
"There's plenty of things to work on, if I worry about the result every week it'll be a tough place to work every day."
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