We thus headed for another pub nearer the centre. This proved difficult to find as despite arriving forearmed with a map, I had cunningly written the name Red Lion on the map, but it turned out the pub was called the Royal Oak. Still at least the beer was good when we finally found it.

We moved onto the terrace behind the goal in plenty of time for the kick off and were all in fine voice and after an hour were heading for the top of the table with a two goal lead [EDITOR - what are you talking about Tom?] [TOM - Shrewsbury's away trip to Chesterfield on Friday night] [EDITOR - this is supposed to be about the Bath-Tigers game!] [TOM - Oh] So to continue (briefly) - Shrewsbury messed it up and let Chesterfield get back to 2-2 and so Shrewsbury failed to go top of the league.

Onto Saturday - I was up nice and early for the trek to Bath via Tamworth - why do some people just insist on living there? We had a great journey down and even found a parking spot that wasn't too far up Bathwick hill. However we had managed to arrive before the Green Tree opened and so horror of horrors had to go and look at some shops. However we were back for opening time and were soon feeling much better after a couple of pints and some food.

Onto the match itself.  After an initial Bath surge Tigers soon seemed to get the upper hand in territory and possession, and most unlike the norm neither team was knocking it on or throwing forward passes. In fact the first handing error I saw was after 13 minutes. The lineouts were fairly even with both sides managing to comfortably lose their own ball and a couple of times it appeared that the teams were actually trying to give the opposition the throw.

Bath took an early 3 point lead with a Butch James penalty which I just managed to knock on when trying to catch it at the back of the terrace, but Tigers soon hit back with Hougaard penalty after a sustained period of pressure right on the Bath try line. This was a common theme of the entire game - Tigers camped on the Bath line for minutes at a time but unable to pierce the excellent Bath defence. Far too often the planned move was to throw the ball back to a bunch of four forwards who would then try to drive to the line. However getting the ball back from the ruck was such a slow process that every time the Bath defence had time to be in position to stop the drive.

Following the score Moody was bursting through the centre looking to give Tigers the lead but was stopped dead by a huge hit by Crocket. This sent the crowd into raptures, but I thought it was more like one of Seru's non tackles as he made no attempt to wrap his arms around Moody. From this Bath took the ball into the Tigers half and from this point the entire Tigers team fell asleep and let the Bath hooker, Dixon, walk in from 40 yards. He looked left, he looked right, but nowhere could he see a Tigers player who wanted to tackle him. From the other end of the pitch it all went in slow motion and it seemed that every Tigers player on the pitch could have caught him, but no one even got near.

Johne Murphy then led a Tigers attack down the left wing and looked to be breaking their wingers tackle, but Butch James (or was it Crocket? - I kept getting those two mixed up) flew at him leading with his shoulder - another non tackle in my opinion. Johne reacted to this and several more players joined in the pushing match. The referee and linesman did their usual impression of blind men and the referee had a chat with the two captains, before going back to the original knock on.

After the conversion, and some more fruitless Tigers possession, Bath managed to get a scrum 5 metres from the Tigers line. This wasn't worrying to the Tigers fans as we had already taken one of their scrums against the head, had wheeled another to get the pub in and generally been on top.

However this time Bath turned the tables and pushed the Tigers back and they scored their second try. From our vantage point it certainly looked like the scrum had wheeled 180 degrees, never mind 90. However the referee awarded the try, and with the conversion and another penalty Bath had a 20-3 halftime lead. We could hardly believe our eyes at the score. It was also looking pretty bad for my prediction league score - I'd put Bath down for 19.

After the break and even more fired up Tigers team took the attack to Bath even more than they had in the first half - if that’s possible. I could hardly believe the amount of time we'd spend on their goal line before the break, but there was even more great Bath defence in the second half.

Although the Tigers did seem to showing the same lack of inventiveness as in the first half. To be fair though, this time the Tigers did at least throw the ball wide a few times and managed to get a score in the left corner only for it be called back for a knock on.  Hougaard cut the deficit with a couple of penalties and finally the Tigers did get over the Bath line with a try for Johne.

Game on - Tigers now trailing only 20-14 were looking well set. When Dixon got sent to the sin bin it seemed that surely the Tigers could score and take the lead. I'm not sure how they mark the pitch, but from our perspective it looked like the try line was somewhere in the sports centre behind the stand, as time and time again the Tigers looked to be over the line only for play to continue.

Hougaard took a knock to his leg and looked in discomfort after one defensive clearance and was replaced with Mauger moving to number 10. Who would kick now we wondered? Dupuy seemed the most likely man to me, but apparently not as he was also replaced. Yet more Tigers pressure on the Bath line finally led to a second Leicester try as Mefin went over. It was a fairly easy conversion from just right of the posts, but who was going to take it?  Geordan stepped up and slotted it home much to our relief. I've seen him miss these, but perhaps the pressure helps?

Now all we had to do was take the kick off and play out the remaining couple of minutes. Meanwhile Dixon returned and it was 15 v 15 again. We took the kick off deep in our own half but cleverly set up a ruck with about 30 seconds left. Game over, we all thought. Keep the ball there and kick it out in 30 seconds time, but no Ben Youngs kicked the ball long down the channel with Varndell chasing. He tackled their man near the 10 metre line and Bath still had it all to do. After several good runs they got down near the Tigers line, but good Tiger defence kept them away, until out of the blue Butch James kicked the ball long to the Bath right wing where the Bath winger took the ball and drove forward. However the covering tackle always looked simple and indeed he was brought to the ground, but he turned and threw a high pass back inside where James had looped round and he took the ball straight over the Tigers try line for the winning score.

No one seems to know or indeed care whether or not they converted the try, but either way Bath had come back from the dead to steal an important victory and extend their lead at the top.

I've no idea who officially won man of the match, but I'd give to the Bath team as a whole for their great defensive work on their own line. Time and time again Tigers had them at their mercy, but stout defence and some crucial turnovers kept the Tigers at bay and that in the end was the difference between the teams.

On the way home we also discovered that City who in keeping with the theme of the weekend were playing away and needed to win to go top of the table were 2-0 up. Naturally though, and also in theme, they let in late goals to also fail.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• 129ml of the Guinness Premiership
• 129ml of the Guinness Premiership

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

Harlequins Poll