 Bath's Nick Abendanon cannot stop Darryl Gibson scoring for Leicester |
Leicester 29 (19)
Tries: J Murphy, Lloyd, Varndell, Gibson
Cons: Goode 3
Pens: Goode
Bath 25 (10)
Tries: Maddock
Cons: Barkley
Pens: Barkley 5
Drops: Berne
Premiership leaders Leicester held off a resilient Bath at Welford Road.
John Murphy, Leon Lloyd and Tom Varndell all scored tries as the Tigers went 19-3 in front before Varndell was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.
And Bath then fought back with Joe Maddock's try and a series of Olly Barkley penalties edging them ahead.
Darryl Gibson's try gave the Tigers the advantage again and they clung on as the game ended controversially when Bath were denied a try at the death.
Bath replacement Eliota Fuimaonon-Sapolu was held up while over the Leicester line and a try was not awarded.
Despite being without a hatful of regulars due to injury and the Six Nations, Leicester held on to gain revenge for their 43-21 at Bath last September.
Leicester coach Pat Howard:
"We have scored eight tries to three in the last two games which is pretty good. But I have got to sit down with the referees and talk to them about penalties.
"We have a difference of opinion in that score and we have that every week. But we have to be happy with four tries today and I was pretty proud of all the guys.
"There are a lot of positives that we can take out of that, that game ended like the Gloucester game last week. I thought our ball control was very good and I'm happy at the way it finished."
Bath head coach Steve Meehan:
"We were 19-3 down and I think we probably didn't deserve to be that far down. We missed a couple of opportunities when we were down but we really tried hard.
"It was a gutsy and a determined effort from the players to get us back into the match. Although we lost I'm very happy with the way things are going."
Leicester: J Murphy; Lloyd, Hipkiss, Gibson, Varndell; Goode, F Murphy; Ayerza, Hickie, Moreno, Cullen (capt), Kay, Croft, Jennings, Crane.
Replacements: Buckland, Holford, H Tuilagi, Abraham, Bemand, Burke, Al Tuilagi.
Bath: Abendanon; Maddock, Walker, Barkley, Bory; Malone, Walshe; Barnes, Dixon, Stevens, Borthwick (capt), Grewcock, Short, Scaysbrook, Feaunati.
Replacements: Hawkins, Jarvis, Beattie, Delve, Fuimaono-Sapolu, Berne, Williams.
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