Murphy injured as sides share the spoils

Bath 20 Leicester 20

The Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill saw his team finally score a try after 274 minutes of rugby and nearly snatch a win at Bath on Saturday, but his delight was tempered by concern over the fitness of his captain Geordan Murphy.

Full-back Murphy appeared to dislocate his shoulder in an effort to touch down his own kick and he was off the field when his side secured a 20-20 draw at the Recreation Ground.

Cockerill said: "His shoulder's popped out and gone back in and he's a bit sore. It's probably the one real downside of the evening.

"We don't know at this stage the extent of the injury. It's too early, but we'll know more on Monday."

On the performance, Cockerill said: "I was delighted. We scored two tries to one and it was a good game to watch, a good physical encounter.

"We weren't obsessed with kicking the ball into the air all the time.

"A draw was probably a fair result and it showed we are not as negative as some people like to make out," he said. "If we keep playing well and trying to play well, we will score tries. We've played three tough away games and got points from all of them."

Bath's head coach Steve Meehan had predictably mixed feelings about the draw, being relieved that the fly-half Nicky Little landed his 77th-minute penalty but he was dissatisfied with his team's performance in the last quarter of the match.

"The last 20 minutes showed why we ended up in a draw," said Meehan. "We didn't control the ball coming out of our own half. We missed opportunities as well. But there was good work from the boys and the level of intensity was better than last week so we are heading in the right direction.

"But it was frustrating. There were some good things to come out of it but there are things to work on too."

On Little, who spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin for a late challenge on Murphy, Meehan added: "He's a pretty experienced player, with a reasonable boot. And he's quite physical for a No 10. Some of the younger fly-halfs in the club can learn from him."

Asked about the "spear tackle" which earnt Little one of his five penalties, but which did not merit any further sanction against Leicester's Anthony Allen, Meehan said: "I thought it was certainly an automatic yellow card.

"At the beginning of the season they were talking of it being a straight red for that offence."

Bath: Try Banahan; Penalties Little 5. Leicester: Tries Davies, Hipkiss; Cons Staunton 2; Pens Staunton 2

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, M Banahan, S Hape, J Cuthbert; N Little, M Claassens (capt); D Barnes (Flatman, 55), L Mears (P Dixon, 67), D Bell (A Jarvis, 67), P Short (S Hooper, 55), D Grewcock, J Faamatuainu ( Beattie, 75), J Salvi, B Skirving.

Leicester: G Murphy (capt) (M Smith, 52), S Hamilton, A Allen (D Hipkiss, 45), A Mauger, J Murphy, J Staunton, J Grindal (B Youngs, 61), M Ayerza (B Stankovich, 67), M Davies, J White (M Castrogiovanni, 49), R Blaze, B Kay (G Parling, 61), C Newby (B Deacon, 78), L Moody, J Crane.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Pontyberem).