There should have been only one winner on a foul wet Sunday afternoon in the east Midlands. As the wind picked up and the tempest reached its height the players deserved credit merely for staying out on the pitch. A gallantry medal could also have been presented to the performance troupe required to dance along to Adele’s Hello at half-time in conditions which would have ruffled a deep-sea trawlerman.
And yet, against significant odds, a half-decent game of attack-minded rugby somehow materialised, albeit a sodden one littered with handling errors as the ball slipped from over-enthusiastic fingers. On a drier day it could have been a minor classic; as it is, Leicester will feel a pleasantly warm sensation on Monday morning after securing one of those battling victories that mean a lot to those involved. “Finding a way to win when we play as indifferently as that is pleasing,” said Richard Cockerill, their director of rugby.
The Tigers are now in third position in the table with Bath down in eighth, something of a contrast to last season when Leicester lost 45-0 and 47-10 on their two trips to the Rec. Bath had also lost only one of their previous seven meetings with their old rivals in all competitions but this was a completely different kind of contest, ultimately requiring composure and endurance as much as pace and skill. There was a collector’s item, too, in the form of a 72nd-minute try from the England prop Dan Cole, only his second in the league for six and a half years and his first at home.
Until Cole slithered over from a metre out with eight minutes left – or least once the TMO had confirmed the ball had squirted off Francois Louw’s hand rather than being knocked on – the outcome was still by no means certain.
Bath had started well and scored a brilliant try inside six minutes, George Ford and Niko Matawalu having cleverly put Matt Banahan away to leave the rapid Anthony Watson with a 30-metre final flourish.
By that stage Leicester had already lost their captain, Mathew Tait, whose hamstring twanged as he sprinted in desperation to try to stop Semesa Rokoduguni scoring in the right corner with the game barely a minute old. Had the Tigers’ Tongan recruit Telusa Veainu not snaffled a 75-metre interception score to head off a three-man Bath overlap it might have been a very different story; instead, with the maelstrom swirling and the scrum a ball of confusion, the Tigers turned round to face the wind 11-5 in front.
Leicester traditionally revel in such situations but they are currently trying to widen their game and the likes of Cole and Tom Youngs have been licking post-World Cup wounds. This may just prove a turning point in terms of confidence: Youngs put in a prodigious amount of work, as did his flankers Mike Williams and Brendon O’Connor, while the 28-year-old Cole dug in to suggest that rumours of his decline as a Test tighthead are premature. “Coley’s not that old and he’s got a lot of rugby left in him,” said Cockerill, who also hopes Ben Youngs will resist overtures from Bath and stay in the east Midlands next season.
“There’s always a speed bump or two in life but I don’t think Dan will be in decline. I think he’ll mature and get better.”
Bath, nevertheless, will look back with some regret. At 11-11 entering the final quarter, the Tigers could still have been tamed with a touch more West Country precision.
The gifted but slightly erratic Matawalu was guilty of two conspicuous knock-ons and was eventually hooked off by his frustrated coach, Mike Ford. “He’s exciting but he needs to concentrate on the basics,” growled Ford, disappointed that his side had been unable to build on their early promise.
Leicester, to their credit, tightened the forward screws expertly. Their fly-half Tommy Bell saw one penalty attempt held up by the wind but a subsequent, shorter effort put his side three points in front with just under 15 minutes to go.
When David Denton was then sin-binned inside six minutes of his Premiership debut for pulling down a close-range maul, Bath really were rocking and Cole’s long-awaited party piece did the rest. A bonus point also eluded the visitors, Mike Ford’s message to go for the posts with a late penalty being ignored by his son, George.
On a memorable weekend for another notable British sporting family it summed up Bath’s day.
Leicester Tait (capt; Catchpole, 1; Bai 67); Thompstone, Betham, Smith, Veainu; Bell, B Youngs (Harrison, 49); Ayerza (Agüero, 78), T Youngs (Bateman, 76), Cole (Balmain, 78), Slater (Kitchener, 64), Fitzgerald, Williams, O’Connor, McCaffery (Croft, 58).
Tries Veainu, Cole. Con Bell. Pens Bell 3.
Sin-bin Slater 54.
Bath Watson; Rokoduguni, Banahan, Eastmond (Priestland, 70), Agulla (Homer, 70); Ford, Matawalu (Cook, 55); Auterac (Catt, 60), Batty (Dunn, 67), Thomas (Lahiff, 62), Hooper, Ellis (Denton, 67), Garvey, Louw (capt), Houston.
Try Watson. Pens Ford 2.
Sin-bin Denton 73.
Referee J P Doyle. Att 22,530.
