It had been well over a month since Bath last played at the Rec, meaning the players had had weeks to prepare for one of the most famous clashes in English rugby; Bath versus Leicester. With the Six Nations over, both teams had their full international contingent back, although Bath’s Shontayne Hape started on the bench. With Olly Barkley sidelined after his horrific leg break against Gloucester, Leicester old boy Sam Vesty filled Barkley’s shoes and lined up with Ben Williams in the centre.

It hardly takes much whipping up of the crowd before such a match, and the city and the ground was buzzing before the players faced up on the turf.

It was an odd game all told, and one that I struggled to sum up in just a few hundred words. The home game started well enough, with lineouts shared between the teams in the Leicester 22. Bath looked to have scored before too long, with Stuart Hooper diving over the line. From where I was it looked like a nailed on try, but Dave Pearson- who I felt missed masses of important things throughout the match-went to the TMO, who judged that Hooper had knocked the ball on. Another Bath break up the left hand touch looked promising, but Matt Banahan couldn’t gather and the ball went forward.

Nick Abendanon is tackled by Scott Hamilton

One of Bath’s best players, Duncan Bell, transformed briefly into a racy winger as he broke through the defence and the ball was chipped across field to set up a lineout on the 22. Leicester soon visited their own 22 for the first time and Toby Flood kicked three points for the visitors as Bath were penalised at the scrum. This was a key aspect for Leicester- very few trips into the Bath 22 were wasted and they nearly always scored points. This was the exact opposite of Bath’s play.

Another beauty of a break from Belly saw him thunder up the touch line but a try from the prop was prevented through determined Leicester tackling, and he was put out a metre from the try line.

This is where it all went to pieces for Bath. All of a sudden, Anthony Allen broke from the midfield, and despite having a fair few Bath players to get around, managed to score a try. I may be remembering it wrong, but as I recall Bath seemed incapable of tackling him, or just couldn’t be bothered. Matt Banahan seemed to be a particular culprit. This lack of tackling was a recurring theme.

A Bath attack- of which there were a fair few, we just failed to convert any of them into points- was halted by a hand in the ruck by Ed Slater. Butch James kicked the penalty. He may have scored all our points today, but all heart seems to have gone out of Butch’s play, if this match was anything to go by.

Bath had a lot of the possession for the rest of the first half, but were totally unable to turn any of this possession into points. A great break from scrum half Michael Claassens set up what was a near certain try for Banahan, but he couldn’t get his hands round the ball and he dropped it.

The notion of tackling seemed to leak out of Bath brains as quickly as my enthusiasm for this game at this point, and Tom Croft was soon let through for the Tiger’s second try after a break from Ben Youngs.

Sam Vesty puts in a big hit on George Chuter

Bath looked very close to a try a few moments later but the movement ended when Hooper was quite badly hurt on the line and needed attention. Any momentum Bath had picked up was wiped away immediately when the England pairing of Flood and Youngs exhibited the magic they have that was utterly missing against Ireland last week, when the scrum half drew the Bath defence, and Flood strolled over the line. He missed the conversion, but ran in at half time with his side leading 3-22.

The opening to the second half was fairly positive for the home side, with some encouraging passing. Leicester were penalised in one of these attacks and James kicked three points for Bath.

Another Leicester attack with a failure to tackle from Bath nearly led to another try, but a pass from the visitors was judged as going forward. It didn’t take long for them to right that wrong, and Flood scored his second try as he spotted a gaping hole in the Bath defence, and popped over the line. Far, far too easy for Leicester. Flood was impressive in this match, and showed how important it is for a fly half to have a powerful, rambunctious pack in front of him. He did today, but didn’t last week for England. The same applied to Ben Youngs.

The conversion was missed, but at 6-27, it hardly mattered. Flood soon kicked another penalty, and was needed to kick a conversion after Tom Croft scored his second try after getting past the defence. With no-one but Butch James anywhere near him, he was always going to score.

Emotions had threatened to spill over for the whole match, and a fight which saw Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe and Horacio Agulla yellow carded took place in the Leicester 22 after a Bath attack was halted. The final score was 6-37.

I don’t think this game was quite as straightforward as “Bath were terrible and Leicester were brilliant”- although the soft tries were thigh slappingly, teeth grindingly, fist clenchingly awful. Bath played really well in the first half and against most other teams would have been scoring points all over the shop. The snag here was they were playing against Leicester, and a more streetwise, tough, tenacious , skilful lot are hard to find. Leicester really showed us up, and any thoughts of Bath gaining silverware in the premiership when such a clearly superior team is up against them was blown out of the water. Some of what Bath did they did really well, but were outclassed and out thought.

Duncan Bell out on the wing

Duncan Bell had a great game, appearing everywhere and dragging in defenders- who were probably shocked at the sight of him thundering at them. Nick Abendanon deserves masses of praise; he was the receiver of multiple shots from Tuilagi (some more cheap than others) but he never gave up. His tenacity did him credit. He must have been bruised from top to toe and from side to side by the end of it but his effort did not go unnoticed! Michael Claassens too deserves praise for his role, although the performance of his fellow countrymen left a lot to be desired.

The lack of tackling was the most frustrating aspect to the leaked tries for me, and as much as I can praise some members of the Bath squad for their play in the first half, I can’t escape from the fact that some players simply failed to tackle key players at key points of the match. By then, the match had gone.

It was blinking funny to see Belly charging up the wing though. Thanks Duncan- it was the only highlight!

Photos by Patrick Khachfe. Full set of photos from the match here