Leicester Tigers finally secure a win over Bath at The Recreation Ground after an end-to-end battle

Leicester Tigers secured a 24-20 victory over Bath Rugby earning their first win at The Recreation Ground in 11 seasons.

Top of the table Leicester Tigers faced bottom of the table Bath and the difference was unexpected in their clash in Somerset. With that being said, Leicester took the lead after phases on the five-metre line saw the ball finally break for Jasper Wiese who gave the Tigers an early 7-0 lead.

Bath were determined though not to let the game get away from them as Ben Spencer beautifully grubber kicked it through for Will Muir to sprint onto and bring the difference down to two.

The Tigers’ went straight back on the attack as Dan Kelly broke the line outside the 22 to pop it inside to Richard Wigglesworth and extend the visitors’ advantage.

Freddie Burns brought back the magic of last week securing his second conversion of the afternoon putting Leicester into a 14-5 lead.

Try scorer Muir did not help his side as he took Bryce Hegarty out in the air which resulted in Bath going down to 14 men for 10 minutes.

The confusion continued in the 22nd minute as momentum appeared to mean nothing. An offside gave Bath a kickable penalty in which Orlando Bailey stood up and was successful from it.

In a flash, the sin bin for Muir was over, and to the surprise of many, Bath came out on top during that period, an immensely strong 10 minutes from the home side.

A chip over the top saw Max Ojomoh meet the ball perfectly to score a try, and after the conversion, Bath took the lead for the first time.

Josh Bayliss gave the hosts a greater advantage as he got past the Leicester players to finish from nearly 40 metres out in an exceptional try which gave Bath a 20-14 lead at the half-time interval.

The second half started frustratingly for Leicester as Burns resorted to playing a little loosely to try something new to break the Bath line.

He once again though was the difference-maker after finding a hole and diving for the line before kicking the conversion to make it 21-20 in Leicester’s favour.

When Burns was substituted, Hegarty took over kicking duties for the Tigers and stretched their lead out to four following a successful penalty goal.

Even though Leicester had brought the game back, the Tigers were pinned back on their own five-metre line as Bath looked to get the win with 15 minutes to go.

The brute force of Leicester managed to get them out of their own 22 and slowly but surely started to push themselves further up the pitch. Five minutes later, they had moved onto Bath’s five-metre line trying to see the last minutes of this game out.

The Tigers continued to show their strength in a less than conventional matter as you would expect from the table toppers. A repeated number of scrums in Bath’s territory ran the clock down in a scary game that nearly saw Bath pull off the impossible.

In the end, Leicester held out to earn a 24-20 win to put the points difference to Saracens in second to double digits and extend their lead in the Premiership.

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