Bath 6 - 37 Leicester Tigers
Bath have Hape and David Wilson on the bench with Matt Banahan coming into the side after playing against Ireland last weekend. For Leicester Tigers Craig Newby captains Leicester with Youngs, Flood, Cole and Croft all starting after last week's Six Nations game against Ireland.
First Half
Good start for Bath, of a line out with nice play and Ben Williams breaks through but a good tackle by a Leicester player. A very good start with Williams showing Leicester they will need to be aware today, Bath lose the first scrum as David Flatman wasn't binding.
Mears gets the ball with two players on the right but didn't pass. Bath gain the ball caused by a Vesty tackle on Manu Tuilagi in which Bath win the turn over, but the ball makes its way inside and Hooper drops the ball as Scott Hamilton's knee dislodges it. Another chance for Bath as Bath push Leicester at the 5m scrum but Leicester knock on and Bath run the ball to the right but the ball couldn't reach Banahan and when it did he knocked it backwards.
Bath are running all over Leicester, another good line out and Sam Vesty kicks a grubber and the bounce just evades Matt Banahan. Bath are playing very well, a nasty injury for Bath as Danny Grewcock knees Duncan Bell in the head when going for the ruck.
Matt Banahan was making another run, when Manu Tuilagi hit Nick Abendanon with a huge tackle! From the line out, Ayerza got the ball made a run for the line but got turned over but Bath knocked on. Bath get penalised for pulling away at the scrum and Toby Flood kicks the penalty Bath 0 “ 3 Leicester Tigers
Straight from the drop off, bath win the ball back the ball makes it to the left Duncan Bell gets the ball and takes Toby Flood with him but Tom Croft makes his way across to usher Bell to touch, from the line out Bath get the ball but Leicester turn it over and spread it to the middle with Anthony Allen getting the ball and knocks a Bath player out of his way and beats Nick Abendanon's tap tackle to run and score. A fantastic try! Toby Flood converts Bath 0 “ 10 Leicester Tigers
Manu Tuilagi's brother Alex Tuilagi is lucky not to get sinbinned as he tackled Abendanon illegally with a late tackle also without using his arms. Lineout to Bath Rugby and bath made good yards to the line but Leicester interfere with the ball with Slater getting sin-binned. Bath get a penalty which Butch James knocks over Bath Rugby 3 “ 10 Leicester Tigers
Bath make another clean break from a line out but Matt Banahan knocks on, Bath have a few good breaks now but none have got them points yet which will be frustrating for Steve Meehan. From a free kick given from David Flatman not binding, Toby Flood punts the ball for a line out in which Leicester get clean ball to Ben Youngs who fakes the Bath player makes a break who passes the ball to Tom Croft who easily runs the ball in what play from Ben Youngs. Toby Flood converts Bath Rugby 3 “ 17 Leicester Tigers
Bath get a free kick and Butch James goes for a kick for the lineout rather than going for the posts, good forwards pick and driving is working everytime gaining yards but Leicester Tigers turn it over, very good defence from Leicester and Ben Youngs clears the ball.
Bath get another penalty and Butch chooses to go for the lineout with a punt, Butch doesn't seem confident about kicking penalties today. With play going forwards and backwards towards the Leicester line again, Bath get the penalty but Simon Taylor punches a Leicester player. Luckily for Taylor he gets away with it and Butch James goes for another punt as Bath are working on getting the try. Bath gets the ball from the line out but the Tigers come in quickly from the line with good defensive pressure.
Just before half time, Alex Tuilagi makes a great but hard tackle on Abendanon, after Abendanon receives treatment he gets the ball and makes Tuilagi look like a donkey after running around him but minutes after Abendanon evaded Tuilagi he gets an awakening after another bashing from Tuilagi with another massive tackle by the Samoan Giant.
Youngs makes another great run as he spotted he could beat the Bath defence leaving it 2 v 1 on bath and Youngs passes to Flood who easily runs the ball in. Fantastic vision from Youngs and Flood misses the conversion. Bath 3 “ 22 Leicester Tigers
Second Half
A good start from Leicester with a lot of pressure but Bath relieve the pressure with a penalty punt, from the line out good Bath work finds them in Leicester's 22 again but Duncan Bell held onto the ball when he should of passed. Bath lose the ball and they come back for a penalty which Butch James knocks over Bath 6 “ 22 Leicester Tigers
Fantastic offload from Leicester see them go towards Baths 22 but a forward pass sees the progress halted, good play from Leicester. From the scrum, Bath push extremely well, get the ball and they kick the ball to Scott Hamilton who kicks the ball high and collects it himself and the pressure builds with Leicester gaining yards over Bath then good feet from Thomas Waldrom gets Leicester into an dangerous area with Youngs and Flood combining for Flood to dive over the line to get a bonus point. Toby Flood misses the conversion Bath Rugby 6 “ 27 Leicester Tigers
From the kick off, Leicester winger Agulla breaks but luckily for Bath Nick Abendanon gets over in time just to stop the Argentinean winger. Good pressure from Leicester with the forwards and Leicester get the penalty. Toby Flood converts the penalty Bath Rugby 6 “ 30 Leicester Tigers
Good work from Leicester sees pacy back rower Tom Croft target David Wilson and goes through the hole to score an easy try under the posts for his second try and Toby Flood converts Bath Rugby 6 “ 37 Leicester Tigers
The impressive Nick Abendanon, passes the ball to Ben Williams who makes a dash towards the line but a good tackle from Leicester sees the threat disappear.
A flying hand from Butch James sees a ruckus begin in which Agulla and Nacho get 10 minutes in the bin for.
The last 5 minutes Butch James has been causing scraps, with getting into the fight mentioned above, over reacting to a tackle and performing a high tackle.
The last ten minutes of the game became quite slow maybe with the players putting so much effort into the previous 70 minutes it was always going to happen.
Thoughts: Fantastic game to watch and I really enjoyed it as I'm sure the spectators in the stands did. Leicester have showed why they are such a good team. Bath attacked very well with Nick Abendanon standing out for Bath.
Man of the Match “ Ben Youngs, he controlled the game with him and Toby Flood tearing Bath to pieces but i'll give a shout out to Nick Abendanon, he may of been on the losing side but for me he was fantastic with the confidence he had even though Bath was getting smashed.
Bath: Abendanon; Banahan, Williams, Vesty, Biggs; James, Claassens; Flatman, Mears, Bell; Hooper, Grewcock; Skirving, Watson, Taylor.
Replacements: Dixon, Catt, Wilson, Fernandez Lobbe, Mercer, McMillan, Hape, Cuthbert.
Leicester: Hamilton; Agulla, M Tuilagi, Allen, A Tuilagi; Flood, Youngs; Ayerza, Chuter, Cole; Mafi, Slater; Croft, Newby, Waldrom.
Replacements: Hawkins, Stankovich, White, Crane, Woods, Grindal, Staunton, Smith.
