Match Centre: Leicester Tigers 48-27 Bath

Leicester Tigers 48-27 Bath, Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium

Leicester Tigers have moved back into contention for play offs as they went on to defeat Bath Rugby 48-27 in the 19th round of the Gallagher Premiership at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on Saturday.

This is eighth win for the Tigers in 16 games as they climbed to the third position in the table while Bath are languishing at the bottom of the table.

It took the visitors just 10 minutes to get their opening try as Cameron Redpath combined with Matt Gallagher to send the latter over the line but Ben Spencer missed out on the conversion.

The response from the Tigers came in the 15th minute as Handre Pollard sent a pass allowing Harry Potter to touchdown and Pollard kicked the extras to make it 7-5.

Bath's indiscipline continued to haunt them as Tom Dunn and Josh McNally were sin-binned in quick succession and in between the both Pollard scored a converted try to give the Tigers a 14-5 lead.

With Bath down to 13 players, Julian Montoya crossed the whitewash and Pollard improved it once again to extend the lead to 21-5 following which Spencer and Pollard traded penalties making it 24-8.

Bath clawed their way back into the game with a Spencer try in the 34th minute but his effort was cancelled out Handro Liebenberg diving from close range to secure the bonus point for the hosts.

Bath were the quickest to get off the block in the second half as Josh McNally after Alfie Barbeary allowed him to dive from close range to make the scoreline 31-20 before a Pollard penalty goal restored the 14 point lead for the Tigers.

The start of the final quarter saw Mike Brown raced away from the Bath defence to set up a second try for Montoya before Harry Wells made a simple dive over the posts to take their tally to 48 points. Bath claimed a losing bonus point as Fergus Lee-Warner powered up the wing in the 75th minute but could not prevent from the Tigers from completing a comfortable win.

Team line up:

Leicester Tigers: Brown; Potter, Scott, Gopperth, Simmons; Pollard, Youngs; West, Montoya (capt), Heyes, Martin, Henderson, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese

Reserves: Clare, van Wyk, Hurd, Wells, Cracknell, Whiteley, Atkinson, Porter

Bath: de Glanville; McConnochie, Joseph, Redpath, Gallagher; Bailey, Spencer (capt); Obano, Dunn, Stuart, McNally, van Velze, Lee-Warner, Underhill, Coetzee

Reserves: Annett, Schoeman, Rae, Reid, Barbeary, Schreuder, Ojomoh, Cloete