'If we’d missed that kick at the end, my messaging wouldn’t have been too dissimilar'

Leicester head coach Geoff Parling praised his players for sticking to their guns right to the end after they snatched a last-gasp 22-20 victory over Gallagher Prem champions Bath.

The Tigers trailed 20-19 going into the final play at Welford Road and were on the brink of a third defeat in four league games this season.

However, a high tackle by Thomas Du Toit gave them one final chance and the player on the receiving end, Billy Searle, nailed his penalty to end Bath’s 100 per cent start to the campaign.

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Parling said: “The thing I’m really pleased with today is when things didn’t go our way, and went towards Bath, we just stuck to the process.

“We stuck to our job, we worked hard for each other and eventually put ourselves, at the end, in a position to win that game.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Leicester

22 - 20

Full-time

Bath

All Stats and Data

“I certainly thought we stood up defensively, especially in the middle of the park.

“You’ve got to realise that (assistant coach) Anthony Allen stepped up very late into that role for me there and is working very hard with our guys.

“I thought our collision work in general was decent, but were we perfect? No, there are always things we can get better at.

“My message before was we need to pour our heart into the shirt, and I thought we did that.

“The reality is if we’d missed that kick at the end, my messaging wouldn’t have been too dissimilar to the players.”

Leicester, last season’s beaten finalists, led 19-17 going into the final 10 minutes as tries from Olly Cracknell, Jamie Blamire and Nicky Smith replied to Bath scores from Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath.

Finn Russell’s penalty looked to have earned the visitors another win, but Searle held his nerve at the last to snatch victory.

Bath head coach Johann van Graan said: “It’s much nicer to win that way than to lose that way, though I thought it was a fabulous game of rugby.

“Two good sides, it became a pressure game for the last 10 minutes and they got that last penalty and kicked it.

“I thought they put us under pressure in the scrum in the first half, we came back in the second half and got that penalty to go ahead.

“It was a fiercely contested set-piece and aerial game.

“If you look at the tries in the first half, it came off kicks and aerial receipts and balls on the floor – it always is on a smaller pitch, you get a certain type of game.

“Leicester played really well, both teams had some good reward with it and ultimately the last penalty was the difference.

“I’d certainly say I thought it was a pretty even battle across the 80 minutes.”