Leicester Tigers boost play-off hopes with 19-34 win over Bath Rugby

Bath Rugby 19 - 34 Leicester Tigers, Twickenham

Leicester Tigers maintained their hopes of making it to the play-offs following a 19-34 win over Bath Rugby in their Aviva Premiership encounter at Twickenham.

The win has taken Leicester to the third position with 56 points while Bath are struggling at eighth position with 46 points.

The first quarter saw Rhys Priestland kick two penalties for Bath that was separated by a three-pointer from George Ford. The home side suffered a setback when scrum-half Kahn Fotuali'i was sin-binned for halting an attack from Leicester on the line illegally.

Things turned from bad to worse for Todd Blackadder's men as Shaun Knight was also yellow-carded and this time Leicester capitalised on having two players extra with Adam Thompstone touching down while Ford slotted the extras to put the visitors into four-point lead.

Bath once again seized on the advantage as the half time was approaching, this time hooker Tom Dunn crashing past the line in the 32nd minute as they headed into the break with a slender 13-10 lead.

The second half saw Sione Kalamafoni scoring back to back tries in the 49th and 62nd minutes but Ford's missed conversions on both the occasions coupled with a penalty goal from Priestland meant Bath were just trailing by one point and their cause were aided by a yellow-card to Thompstone in the 64th minute.

Priestland kicked his fourth penalty to reduce Bath's trail to one point but Leicester did not let things slip through in the final 10 minutes with tries from Sam Harrison (72') and Telusa Veainu (77') along with conversions from Ford sealing a 19-34 bonus point victory for the visitors.