Ryan Davis' nerves got the better of him at the kick-off as he booted the ball off the field. This immediately put Bath on the back foot and after seven phases of play Hamilton chipped deep into Bath's twenty-two and the ball almost wrong footed Nick Abendanon. Maddock cleared and from the lineout Leicester put another eight phases together culminating in a great break from Geordan Murphy who, having been tackled by Abendanon,  threw his off-loaded pass forward otherwise it would have been an early score to the Tigers.

Leicester attacked again and Abendanon was rightly penalised for grabbing Hamilton as he chased a high kick with the whole Bath goal-line at his mercy. The Bath full-back was lucky not to have been binned for his cynical action - he should have gone for a short rest. Dupuy continued where he left off last week with a poor penalty kick to leave the score at 0-0.

Finally after soaking up pressure for the first eight minutes Bath got some possession to start off their running game but were well marshalled by the home defence. However Leicester soon got back in to their groove, making yards at every phase of play. Finally the Bath defence was breached after 16 minutes when Hipkiss dipped his shoulder to run inside Hooper and then shrugged off Abendanon's despairing tackle to score the opening try.

Bath nearly conceded another try three minutes later when Sam Vesty kicked forward and the ball was tracked by Johne Murphy but thankfully Shontayne Hape cleverly dropped on the ball before the Leicester winger could score.

Bath got their first penalty after 24 minutes when Leicester were off-side at a scrum on half-way. The kick was outside Davis' range but he missed touch and thankfully Banahan charged down the clearance to give his colleagues a breather from defending their territory.

On 27 minutes a Leicester scrum in the Bath twenty-two set up a great scoring opportunity as the attackers stretched the defenders but a poor pass by Erinle saw Hipkiss knock forward.

With five minutes left before the break Bath defended like a punch drunk boxer clinging on to his opponent and it was only a dropped pass by Vesty on the Bath goal line that ensured the Tigers didn't double their score. However Bath gave away another try by cocking up their clearing scrum when Bell was penalised for not binding, giving the five metre scrum to Leicester. A solid platform gave Dupuy an easy opportunity to feed Vesty who strolled through the Bath defence.

Half-time couldn't come too soon for Bath as they trudged off 14-0 down.

Bath started the second half with a nice running move involving Davis and Crockett, eventually getting a penalty after the Tigers' defence failed to move away at the ruck.  Claassens tried to take a quick tap and go but Pearson stopped him - so where is the advantage to the penalised? Stopping Bath running clearly benefited Leicester. Instead Ryan Davis had a pop at goal but the distance was just too much for the young fly-half.

Leicester conceded another penalty a couple of minutes later and this time Claassens opted for a touch-finder . The line out then set up a good try for the skipper after a series of phases saw the Bath scrum-half dive over from a ruck close to the Tigers' goal line. Davis missed the touchline conversion and was so slow with his technique that he was almost charged down as his foot made contact with the ball.

After taking the initiative in the opening exchanges of the second half, Bath then lost momentum by losing their own lineout and then conceding a penalty which made the score 17-5. To compound things Ryan Davis again kicked the restart off the field.

Bath got themselves back in the game just before the hour mark through a second try, this time from Stuart Hooper diving over on the right wing. Davis missed another difficult kick.

On the hour mark it looked as though Leicester would score after 13 phases of play but Croft was stopped from scoring in the right hand corner by great covering by Hape and Abendanon. Bath had to defend like demons over the following minutes as Leicester threw everything into scoring but the Westcountry men held firm and were relieved by a scrum and then a penalty. However they put themselves under more pressure by losing the penalty lineout after opting for a long line-out just when Pieter Dixon returned to rugby after a few months out - madness!

Bath were finally knocked out of the tie when Lewis Moody fell on a loose ball to score Leicester's third try but the real controversy came from Dave Pearson's decision not to bin Abendanon (again) when he appeared to trip Johne Murphy in the build up to the score. With the score at 24-10 and ten minutes left Bath looked down and out. And so they were!

Well done Leicester, worthy winners.

Normally I'm hacked off after a loss to Leicester but they are without doubt the top team in the country at present and our boys did well to come back in the second half and challenge the result until the last ten minutes. I don't know about you but I'm ready for a break from rugby!

Leicester (14) 24 Tries: Hipkiss, Vesty, Moody Cons: Dupuy 3 Pens: Dupuy Bath (0) 10 Tries: Claassens, Hooper

 

Leicester Tigers: 15. Geordan Murphy   14. Scott Hamilton   13. Ayoola Erinle   12. Dan Hipkiss   11. Johne Murphy   10. Sam Vesty   9. Julien Dupuy   1. Marcos Ayerza   2. George Chuter   3. Martin Castrogiovanni   4. Tom Croft   5. Ben Kay   6. Craig Newby   7. Ben Woods   8. Jordan Crane   Replacements: 16. Benjamin Kayser   17. Julian White   18. Marco Wentzel   19. Lewis Moody   20. Harry Ellis   21. Matt Smith   22. Tom Varndell

Bath Rugby: 15. Nick Abendanon   14. Joe Maddock   13. Alex Crockett   12. Shontayne Hape   11. Matt Banahan   10. Ryan Davis   9. Michael Claassens   1. David Flatman   2. Lee Mears   3. Duncan Bell   4. Justin Harrison   5. Peter Short   6. Andy Beattie   7. James Scaysbrook   8. Stuart Hooper   Replacements: 16. Pieter Dixon   17. David Barnes   18. Paulica Ion   19. Jonny Fa'amatuainu   20. Scott Bemand   21. Shaun Berne   22. Andrew Higgins

Referee: Dave Pearson

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