| Bath: (8) 19 |
| Tries: Hill, Butt Pens: Bailey 3 |
| Leicester Tigers: (15) 18 |
| Tries: Nadolo, Cronin Con: Burns Pens: Burns 2 |
Will Butt scored a last-minute try as Bath came from behind to beat Leicester 19-18 at the Recreation Ground.
Nemani Nadolo and James Cronin powered over for the Tigers to give them a seven point half-time lead, with Ted Hill crossing for Bath.
Orlando Bailey and Freddie Burns traded penalties after the break before Butt dived over as the clock went red.
The victory means Bath have won three consecutive league matches for the first time since February 2021.
After a slow start to the season Bath move up to seventh in the Premiership, level on points with – though having played one more game than – defending champions Leicester, one place above them.
Leicester’s last two league matches have been cancelled and their lack of game time in the last month showed as they conceded a penalty from the off when Ollie Lawrence broke their line, which Bailey subsequently kicked through the posts.
Bath’s lead was short-lived as the Tigers hit back from their first spell in possession, building through the phases and allowing Nadolo to find space outside.
Still, the home side came into the match on the back of confidence-inducing wins against Northampton and Newcastle and a bolstered line-up that had a distinct Worcester flavour, with five ex-Warriors in the starting XV. Lawrence and Hill made try-saving tackles to deny Harry Potter and Harry Wells as Leicester dialled up the pressure, and Burns kicked another three points for the visitors.
Bath reduced the deficit on the counter, with Hill evading a tackle to accelerate over for his second try in two matches.
But while Leicester continued to dominate, their attack didn’t quite flow as Potter saw two chances go begging, including a knock-on over the line, before Cronin finally touched down from a driving maul on half-time.
The Tigers’ form has been inconsistent this season and Bath capitalised, forcing handling errors and winning the battle at the scrum, before Bailey’s second penalty moved them to within four points with 10 minutes to go.
Former Bath winger Anthony Watson seemed to all but secure the win for Leicester, making a remarkable turn and interception to prevent a pass reaching Butt that would have seen him over.
Yet when Bath won another scrum penalty and kicked to touch for a last-ditch line-out, Butt didn’t miss with the final play and touched down in the corner to continue their resurgence under Johann van Graan.
Bath defence coach JP Ferreira told BBC Radio Bristol:
“We know Leicester’s a formidable team, champions last year; we know we were up against it tonight. We put a lot of hard work in since pre-season, happy to get the win, but still a lot of work.
“I said earlier we let them in, soft collisions from our side, and they were just getting momentum on the ball. Luckily, we stuck it out for a couple of phases – I’m talking about 20-plus phases – on our goalline and managed to get the turnover.
“But going into the second half, we knew we had to stop their momentum because they really brought it to us in the first half.
“After a bit of hard talk at half-time, the second half was much better. We played the territory game much better and it was all down to the last 10 seconds I suppose.”
Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick told BBC Radio Leicester:
“We had two teams who really fought hard tonight. I think the supporters of both teams will be very proud.
“It was a hard-fought contest. I thought we had plenty of opportunities on the try-line. Unfortunately, we put the ball down, dropped the ball a few times, clearly didn’t lead to tries. If you don’t take the opportunities then you leave the opposition in the game and that’s what we did tonight.
“We haven’t played for a number of weeks. We’ve got a number of players away on international camps, we’ve got five players in England’s 23 tomorrow, we’ve got Wales, Argentina, South Africa, Fiji, Samoa… and then the fact we’ve had a couple of players that have taken bangs in international camps you can’t pick.
“I’m delighted we produce international players [but] one of the challenges you have when you play a season that has clashes with international games is that sometimes you end up losing battles where you get teams that produce internationals and teams that don’t. That was the case today.”
Bath: Shillcock; Butt, Joseph, Lawrence, Gallagher; Bailey, Spencer; Morozov, Annett, Rae, Lee-Warner, Roux, Hill, Reid, De Carpentier.
Replacements: Dunn, Cordwell, Jonker, Ellis, Bayliss, Green, Redpath, White.
Leicester Tigers: Watson; Ashton, Potter, Scott, Nadolo; Burns, Wigglesworth; Cronin, Clare, Cole, Wells, Green, Martin, Liebenberg, Cracknell.
Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Van Wyk, Hurd, Snyman, Jansen, Edwards, Atkinson, Cokanasiga.
Referee: Tom Foley
