Bath 27-21 Leicester
Twickenham
Two quick-fire tries were enough for Bath as they overpowered Leicester Tigers in front of over 60,000 fans at Twickenham.
It didn’t take long for the Tigers to open the scoring, Brendan O’Connor breaking through the line and stepping Matt Banahan to dot down.
Matt O’Connor’s side grabber their second a few minutes later. A lovely kick through from Telusa Veainu bobbled through and the Tongan International gathered his own kick to finish wonderfully in the corner.
But Bath eventually found their way into the game and scored from their first meaningful attack, Jonathan Joseph finishing out wide after a series of quick phases in midfield. Ford really began to assert his presence on the game as the half wore on, adding a penalty to his earlier conversion.
Burns responded with a penalty of his own to give Leicester a five-point lead going into the break. The Leicester fly-half continued where he left off in the second half, his second penalty of the afternoon sailing through the sticks.
The two kickers continued to trade penalties, with Ford adding his second. After a quiet spell for both sides, the injured Burns added his third penalty before being replaced by Owen Williams to take Leicester a score clear.
Despite the deficit Bath refused to lie down. Almost straight from kick off Taulupe Faletau picked the perfect line off Joseph to break through the Leicester line before popping the ball for Watson to score.
A tumultuous few minutes got worse for Leicester when JP Pietersen was shown yellow for a deliberate knock on, meaning the Tigers would see out the game with 14 men.
It didn’t take long for Bath to capitalise, Todd Blackadder’s men taking advantage of the extra space out wide leaving Anthony Watson with an easy run for his second try in five minutes.
Bath were also reduced to fourteen men in the final minutes, Beno Obano dismissed after repeated scrum offences from both sides.
The win means Bath are level with their opponents in fourth place and edge closer to securing the all-important play-off place with three games to go.
The scorers:
For Bath:
Tries: Joseph, Watson 2
Cons: Ford 3
Pens: Ford 2
Yellow Card: Obano
For Leicester:
Tries: O’Connor, Veainu
Con: Burns
Pens: Burns 3
Yellow Card: Pietersen
Bath: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford (cc), 9 Kahn Fotuali’i, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Francois Louw (cc), 6 Tom Ellis, 5 Elliott Stooke, 4 Charlie Ewels, 3 Kane Palma-Newport, 2 Ross Batty, 1 Nathan Catt
Replacements: 16 Chris Brooker, 17 Beno Obano, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 David Denton, 20 Zach Mercer, 21 Chris Cook, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Tom Homer
Leicester Tigers: 15 Telusa Veainu, 14 Adam Thompstone, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 JP Pietersen, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Luke Hamilton, 7 Brendon O’Connor, 6 Mike Fitzgerald, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Dom Barrow, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs (c), 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 George McGuigan, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Fraser Balmain, 19 Mike Williams, 20 Harry Thacker, 21 Ben White, 22 Owen Williams, 23 Jack Roberts
Referee: JP Doyle
Assistant Referees: Simon McConnell, Andrew P Jackson
TMO: Graham Hughes
The post Premiership: Bath win at Twickenham appeared first on Planet Rugby.