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Bath struggle past error-stricken Leicester Tigers

By PA
Leicester Tigers v Bath – Gallagher Premiership – Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium

Bath’s impressive start to the season continued with a hard-earned 20-15 victory over Leicester in an error-ridden game.

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After last week’s opening day 38-16 demolition of reigning champions Northampton, Bath followed it up with a disjointed performance against highly-committed opponents.

Still Bath had two-thirds of possession and territory but it was not until the 73rd minute that they finally killed off Tigers’ rearguard action.

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Eben Etzebeth on his future plans

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The visitors scored three tries from Will Muir, Tom de Glanville and Guy Pepper. Finn Russell added one conversion with Ben Spencer kicking a penalty.

Jack van Poortvliet and Dan Cole scored Leicester’s tries with Jamie Shillcock converting one and adding a penalty.

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Leicester
15 - 20
Full-time
Bath
All Stats and Data

A poor box-kick from Leicester skipper Van Poortvliet gave Bath the chance to exert huge early pressure with Tigers’ try-line being continuously battered but the visitors could not make it count.

They turned down two kickable penalties in favour of attacking line-outs but it proved to be the wrong call as twice they were held up over the line.

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A 50/22 from fly-half Shillcock relieved the siege and it was now the hosts’ turn to threaten but their momentum was halted when centre Izaia Perese was yellow-carded for a high challenge on Joe Cokanasiga who departed to fail an HIA.

Tigers looked to have overcome the setback when a pass from Hanro Liebenberg sent Ollie Hassell-Collins racing over in the corner but the wing lost possession in the process of touching down.

Leicester Bath
Press Association

However, the first score still went the way of the home side with a penalty from Shillcock giving them a 21st-minute lead.

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That advantage was short-lived as Russell made a clean break but the move was faltering until Ollie Lawrence recovered possession for Muir to gallop down the left flank and score.

Perese was able to return from the sin-bin with no further damage done to the scoreboard and in time to see his side regain the lead.

Two poor kicks from Russell put his side under the cosh and Van Poortvliet made him pay by dummying over with Shillcock’s conversion giving Leicester a 10-5 interval lead.

Five minutes after the restart, Muir was helped off with a leg injury so Bath were forced to play fly-half Orlando Bailey and flanker Josh Bayliss on the wing.

Leicester Bath
Press Association

The reshuffle did not stop them producing a well-executed move which ended with De Glanville out-flanking the cover defence to bring the scores level.

A speculative hoof out of defence from Lawrence won a 50/22 and gave Bath an attacking platform from where Pepper finished off a series of forward drives. Russell converted but missed a penalty before Spencer stepped up to kick one and seal victory.

There was just time for Leicester to secure a losing bonus-point when Cole forced his way over from close range.

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E
EV 3 hours ago
Is this why Ireland and England struggle to win World Cups?

Rassie is an extremely shrewd PR operator but the hype and melodrama is a sideshow to take the attention from the real reason for the Boks dominance.


Utimately the Boks dominate because Rassie and his team are so scientific and so driven. His attention to detail and obsessive analysis smacks of Tom Brady's approach.


He has engineered a system to find and nurture talent from the best schools to the most desolate backwaters. That system has a culture and doctrine very similar to elite military units, it does not tolerate individuals at the expense of the collective.


That machine also churns out three to five world class players in every position. They are encouraged to play in Ireland, England, France and Japan where their performance continues to be monitored according to metrics that is well guarded IP.


Older players are begged to play in the less physical Japanese league as it extends their careers. No Saffa really wants to see Etzebeth or Peter Steph or Pollard play in France or British Isles. And especially not in South Africa, where you just have these big, physical young guns coming out of hyper competitive schools looking for blood.


Last but but no means the least is the rugby public's alignment with the Springbok agenda. We love it when they win between World Cups but there is zero drama if they lose a game or a string of games for the sake of squad depth.


It's taken time to put it together but it has just matured into a relentless machine.

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