By Glen Leat
November 27 2003

It's the highlight of the season this Saturday for many Bath supporters as their team head to the East Midlands to face the old foe on their turf. The war of words off the field has already started with the Tiger's prop, Graham Rowntree, claiming Bath have been lucky so far.

"No disrespect to Bath but I don't think they can keep their momentum going throughout the winter," Graham Rowntree has claimed. Well Mr Rowntree I think you are showing a great deal of disrespect for a team that has won all but one of its Premiership games, lost a fair share of players to the World Cup and suffered an outrageous number of injuries in the back line. As all the top sportsmen in the world will testify you make your own luck: I could understand his comments if we had scraped through after three or four games but we have played 10 league matches and, perhaps excepting Rotherham, no one has rolled over for us!

It's a shame that Rowntree has come out with these comments because many people will see him as reflecting the view of his club, yet I can't imagine Martin Johnson making such disparaging remarks. Johnson would have paid tribute to a club that has miraculously turned itself around over the summer whilst commenting that the return of the World Cup players may make a difference during the second half of the season. No doubt Rowntree is trying a bit of pre-match psychology but hopefully it will backfire on him and positively wind up the Bath boys.

Bath travel to Welford Road to face the Leicester Tigers on Saturday in a situation reminiscent of years gone by. In recent seasons, during which the Tigers have dominated English rugby and Bath have been the whipping boys for most teams, we have not been able to enjoy an even contest but this time things could be different.

Bath coach, John Connolly, will decide on Friday whether he will play his England World Cup winners though it is almost certain that Danny Grewcock will play some part in this game and he has said he can't wait to get back to playing for a winning Bath side after a personally disappointing World Cup. "It is good to have the Cup Finalists back,” said Connolly, “Catty is in good shape and Iain and Mike are both available.”

The biggest change to the Bath line up will be the absence of Michael Lipman, who was given a three-week ban for illegal use of the boot against Harlequins, by a RFU disciplinary panel in Bristol on Wednesday night. Lipman will not only miss Saturday’s trip to Welford Road but also both legs of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup first round tie against L’Aqulia. John Connolly will not be appealing against the ban and will replace Lipman with James Scaysbrook.

The absence of Lipman means this will be the first time all season that Connolly has been forced to change the starting eight of his pack.

If the Tigers choose their returning World Cup stars the Bath pack will face their biggest challenge of the season to date. With the likes of of Johnson, Back, Kay, Moody and Corry turning out for their first game of the season Jonathan Humphreys and his powerful pack will do well to provide the platform the Bath backs have enjoyed all season, but let's not be too quick to assume the Tigers will have things all their own way. Humphreys has become an inspirational leader and his two props would get in to any Premiership team. Steve Borthwick and Rob Fidler have developed an awesome understanding with the back three and will test the out of form Ben Kay to the limit in the line out.

The fortress that is Welford Road has already been breached this season and there is no reason why a resurgent Bath shouldn't grab a win. This is likely to be a very close game but I think Bath can win by 5 points.

Possible Bath Line Up

15 Matt Perry 14 Wylie Human (Iain Balshaw) 13 Robbie Kydd (Mike Tindall) 12 Andrew Higgins (Mike Catt) 11 Simon Danielli 10 Olly Barkley 9  Martyn Wood 1  David Flatman 2 Jonathan Humphreys 3 Duncan Bell 4 Steve Borthwick 5 Rob Fidler 6 Andy Beattie 7 James Scaysebrook 8 Zak Feaunati

Click here to remind yourself about the last match against the Leicester Tigers.

Click on to the Leicester site for their perspective on things.

In preparation for this clash let's have a look at a few recent statistics:

Games Played

Played	18	%
Bath Won	5	28
Tigers Won	13	72
Drawn	0	0

Biggest Win

Bath	47 - 9	12 Apr 1997
Tigers	48 - 9	22 Sept 2001

Last Meetings (Bath scores first)

1 Nov 2003		31 -17		The Rec
1 Feb 2003		8 -15		The Rec
5 Oct 2002		20-22		Welford Rd
9 Mar 2002		9 - 27		The Rec
22 Sept 2001		9 - 48		Welford Rd
13 May 2001		10 - 22		Twickenham
26 Dec 2000		16 - 17		The Rec
16 Dec 2000		19 - 27		Welford Rd
21 May 2000		25-43		Welford Rd
26 Dec 1999		3-13		The Rec
03 Apr 1999		24-16		The Rec
07 Nov 1998		13-36		Welford Rd
14 Mar 1998		16-5		The Rec
25 Oct 1997		22-33		The Rec
12 Apr 1997		47-9		The Rec
07 Sep 1996		25-28		Welford Rd
06 Jan 1996		14-15		The Rec
23 Sep 1995		14-9		Welford Rd