This grey, wet day was reminiscent of many an encounter with the old enemy, all that was missing from the past was a claggy pitch and two packs steaming like a aggravated kettle. Funnily enough I saw Gareth Chilcott shortly before the game and I half-expected him to trot on in the second half to replace Bell or Flatman only to be sent off five minutes later for punching Julian White. (Sigh) The old days.

I chatted to a chap I know before the game and said two things: I'm glad we've got Chris White officiating today as he's a good referee and I think we'll win this one although it will be close. However I then conceded that every time I think we'll win we generally lose and despite trying to quickly retract my words the genie was out of the bottle! Sorry.

Well Mr White had a bit of mare with the scrums and he seemed content to allow the Tigers to slow the ball down to such an extent I thought I was watching one of those "1000 frames a second" pictures Sky seem to enjoy on the cricket. I don't think I've ever seen so many attempts at getting a scrum set as occurred in the second half. Julian White appeared to be pulling down on David Flatman's shoulder all afternoon to collapse the scrum and when he did it (yet again) with 20 minutes to go Nick Walshe grabbed the ball expecting a free kick. But referee White had other ideas and once again asked for the scrum to be set: the players were seething. 

Having said that it wasn't all Chris White's fault that we struggled up front, our front row appeared to be out-muscled, out-played and out-thought all afternoon and at one stage I was really worried about Lee Mears as his confidence seems to have taken a knock since he's been involved with England. I hope this isn't a case of the Andy Long syndrome!

Bath looked as though they had signed England cricketer, Monty Panesar, in the week and he was responsible for training the players on how to catch high balls from re-starts and in the line-out. If we dropped one we dropped four or five and each time gave Leicester an attacking position from which they made Bath play on several occasions. I've not seen Bath play so scrappily in this area of the game as today.

Leicester dominated the early possession and territory and after 15 minutes had built up a 0-6 lead through two Andy Goode penalties. However Bath then started to pick up the pace and within 10 minutes were level following two Chris Malone penalties. Goode had the chance to regain the lead through an easy penalty in front of the Bath posts but instead tried a cheeky quick-kick to catch Bath off-guard but his impudence was not rewarded. In my mind this was a strange call given the conditions and the tightness of the match.

However Goode was given a Get Out Of Jail card by Leon Lloyd just a few minutes later as the Tigers' winger touched down for the only try of the match. Goode converted from the touchline to make the score 6-13. A penalty apiece before half-time took things to 9-16 at the break. This lad has one hell of a boot on him but can't help looking like he's eaten a few pies in the pre-match warm-up. Goode looks fat and ponderous yet I keep get a feeling that he's a better option than Swarthy Charlie for England.

Bath generally played the ball up the middle, Connolly style, but there were several occasions when both Higgins and Maddock danced like Jason Robinson to create space and gain ground and Gareth Delve made a few telling runs which smacked of a class forward, however the Leicester defence was very strong and Bath rarely looked like breaking the goal line. The one time Bath had a half-chance late in the first half, Lewis Moody illegally put his body in the way and enjoyed a ten minute rest with Dusty Bin. He wasn't pleased as he walked to the Leicester bench but on reflection I'm sure he'll see reason!

The second half was a game of nip and tuck with both sides struggling to gain any momentum and certainly domination. It took 34 minutes in to the half before the scoreboard was troubled and then only with a penalty apiece.

For much of the game I found more enjoyment from watching Richard Cockerill playing with the crowd behind the Tigers' bench (says it all really). Good man Cocky, banter and fun without the Dean Ryan-style snarling and ignorance when he's visiting The Rec. Pat Howard also enjoyed a couple of laughs which was good to see. Well done fellas.

On the basis of this performance I can't see Bath snatching a win at Leicester next week but the Tigers have to be concerned at their lack of penetration. They had the better chances in the this game to score tries but, with the exception of Lloyd's try, Bath had little trouble holding them up from scoring tries.

What about Glawster? When we need them to win against Bristol they don't and now Bris is back ahead of us. Grrrr!

And finally... forget all this "Keep Bath at the Rec", we've got more important things on our mind we need to "Keep Brian Ashton at the Rec"!!

Referee: Chris White

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