Over the past three weeks Bath has scored five tries and three tries twice yet against a depleted Leicester side it took almost 30 minutes to get anywhere near the opposition goal line with a meaningful attack. At a time when one would expect the young lads of Bath to be flying high with confidence they struggled in many departments. 

They were trying to run too often and forcing the game when a cool head was needed to mix up play. Whilst we all want to see exciting running rugby there are times when a simple clearance kick (dare I say from someone like Butch James) is required and the young Bath backs need to understand this. This was a much needed wake-up call to those of us who perhaps have been getting a bit carried away with recent success.

The return of line-out manager extraordinaire, Steve Borthwick, seemed to put the mockers on this area of our game this week. It was like watching England struggle with the Boks' jumpers as we gave away possession time after time. Confused appeared at every throw-in and this could have cost Bath dearly.

The Bath attackers were often crossing the gain line with their penetrating runs out of defence but their ball handling was too often poor and so couldn't take advantage of the gained ground. To be fair to Tigers, they put far more pressure on Classsens and Davis than has been experienced in recent weeks and this prevented the Bath half-backs from positively servicing their three-quarters. Another great learning opportunity that will serve us well later in the season.

Leicester hogged the ball for the opening salvos but it was Bath who scored first through a Ryan Davis penalty. Ian Humphreys drew the scores level a few minutes later after he had beaten the defence with a nice shimmy and they had to smother him to snuff out the danger. Humphreys then took his side in to the lead after 24 minutes with a massive penalty kick from inside his half after Bath had been penalised at a lineout (surprise, surprise!).

Leicester scored the opening try of the match after 27 minutes when Bath gave away a penalty and then a free-kick from the ensuing lineout (agghh!). The ball was moved wide to Sam Vesty and he easily cut through a non-existent Bath defence to score. Unforced errors and a sleepy defence gave Leicester this opportunity.

Three minutes later Bath got a penalty inside the Tigers' half when Frank Murphy tried to snipe at a scrum before Claassens brought the ball into play. The Bath scrum-half grabbed the ball and made 10 metres before being awarded another penalty which made Ryan Davis' job that much easier as he bagged the penalty points.

Without doubt the turning point of the game was a Penalty Try awarded to Bath after 39 minutes. For perhaps the first time in the game the home side attacked the Leicester line with vigour. Steve Borthwick tried to emulate Peter Short's recent efforts by charging up the line and starting the play which saw Michael Stephenson held back short of the line.

Bath then secured a couple of scrums which really pressurised the visitors and eventually they couldn't resist (again) trying to steal the ball from the back of the scrum. Referee Rowden immediately ran beneath the posts to award a try which I found somewhat surprising because whilst Bath were attacking with power, they were still some yards short of the try-line. A penalty? Certainly, but a penalty Try? Hmmm. If the boot were on the other foot I wouldn't have been too happy! This score brought Bath back in to the game when there was a danger that another score from Leicester could have made a win difficult for the home side. 13-11 to Bath at half-time.

Leicester seized the initiative and regained the lead within a few minutes of the restart when Bath were penalised for failing to roll away at a ruck and amazingly that was their last score of the afternoon. That is not to say Bath had it easy and there was one sweeping attack from the Tigers' pack where Luke Abraham played as link man for his colleagues to set up a series of fearsome charges at the Bath line. Much has been said already this season about the Bath defence and despite a couple of errors in the first half, Brad Davis earned his pay by ensuring his charges could organise rock solid defence plays in the second. 

Ryan Davis was replaced by Shaun Berne, as the young No 10 limped off after experiencing what many Bath players have experienced over the years - a mauling from the Tigers! Berne immediately sat back a bit deeper and used his thumping boot to gain ground out of defence.

After an hour it looked as though Bath had finally broken through the Leicester defence when Matt Banahan (on for Stephenson) fought his way along the left wing only to lose the ball as he was sure of scoring. The crowd was so sure of the score they were all off their seats and leaping about only to experience Cueto-like disappointment.

Fortunately the home fans only had to wait a further six minutes before Banahan's phantom try became a genuine score when Alex Crockett crossed the line. As with the Penalty Try there was an element of luck to the try. Another calamitous lineout play saw the intended catcher miss the ball but replacement, Jonny Fa'amatuainu was on hand to sweep up the pieces and he fed Crocket who cut through the defence in similar fashion to Vesty for Leicester in the first half. Berne's conversion took the score to 20-14 with ten minutes remaining.

Leicester threw everything at Bath in the closing five minutes and referee Rowden again played his part in the drama. Bath were penalised twice when they had won scrums which placed them under pressure but he relieved that pressure (again twice) when he acceded to one of the touch judges who claimed two Tigers' passes were forward. The second of these may have been (just) but the first definitely wasn't.

Phew that was close and the win could easily have gone either way. Ashley Rowden may be a friend of many on ERE but today wasn't, in my opinion, one of his best displays.

Referee: Ashley Rowden

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