Tigers Made Sure There Was A Blood Bath

Leicester Tigers 17 – 8 Bath

Leicester's brilliant defence was the stand out highlight has they got revenge on Bath after their 45 – 0 hammering in round three with Tom Youngs grabbing the only try for the Tigers along with Owen Williams' four successful penalties.

Bath were able to get a try of their own right at the end of the game with Ross Batty crossing the whitewash.

After this result director of rugby Richard Cockerill believes his side can beat anyone in the Aviva Premiership saying “This was a fantastic performance against a good team and we have got some quality still to come back.

“That side out there is good enough to beat anybody in the league and that’s without five or six world class players still to come back into the team. I want guys to be in the middle of those games, I don’t want guys with 20 minutes looking to come off because they think they’ve done their bit.

“We are disappointed with conceding the try at the end but Bath are a good team, let’s take nothing away from that and I think it says a lot about the character of the players that took the field today.”

The game was built on a lot of tension as there were scuffles breaking out on three different occasions in the first half it was safe to say Tigers wanted blood.

It was the visitors who got the first points of the game as former Leicester player George Ford scored a penalty in the opening five minutes. The lead didn’t last long as Williams had two attempts to bring the scores level and despite missing his first penalty, the Welsh fly – half made sure he scored on his second attempt.

As the hosts were dominating and pressuring it was only a matter of time before the West County sides defence cracked, which it did on 16 minutes from a rolling maul Youngs grounded the ball to give the home side the lead and even though Williams missed the conversion he did score another penalty to increase the lead to 11 – 3.

Bath started to come back on the attack and Sam Burgess looked to have scored his first Premiership try, but referee Mark Carley disallowed the try for a forward pass, however Carley should have double checked with the TMO because the pass looked a lot closer than it may have appeared.

Then on the stoke of half time Ford had a chance to close the gap to five points, but unfortunately the young fly half missed the penalty.

Half – Time – Leicester Tigers 11 – 3 Bath

The second half was a defensive masterclass from the Tigers and as Williams continued to increase his tally to 12 points scoring penalties on 44 and 59 minutes.

Bath’s patience was finally rewarded on 79 minutes as Batty ground the ball from a rolling maul after securing a lineout on the Tigers 22. However, Ford missed the conversion which meant the visitors left Welford Road without a losing bonus point.

Scorecard

5 mins – Ford (Pen) – 0 – 3

8 mins – Williams (Pen) – 3 – 3

16 mins – Youngs (Try) – 8 – 3

20 mins – Williams (Pen) – 11 – 3

HT – Tigers 11 – 3 Bath

44 mins – Williams (Pen) – 14 – 3

59 mins – Williams (Pen) – 17 – 3

79 mins – Batty (Try) – 17 – 8

FT – Tigers 17 – 8 Bath