Leicester vs Bath match report: Cockerill left crowing as Leicester enjoy cold dish of revenge on Bath

Leicester 17 Bath 8

Owen Williams of Leicester kicks a penalty during the Aviva Premiership match between Leicester Tigers and Bath (Getty Images)

Bath rarely leave Welford Road alive: their lone Premiership triumph in these parts was more than a decade ago and, ever since that single- point victory, they have generally ended up in the chapel of rest at the funeral director’s headquarters on the other side of the street.

With a record like that, it was hardly the shock of the century when they were given the shallow grave treatment again yesterday – especially as they had subjected Leicester to a form of living death in September. The Tigers did not waste too much of their build-up time reflecting on the 45-0 humiliation they had suffered at the Recreation Ground. “We didn’t want to revisit it because whenever we watch the tape of that game, Bath look so good,” said Richard Cockerill, the Midlanders’ rugby director, with characteristic candour.

But there was, without doubt, a whiff of revenge in the air when Leicester took the field in front of a 24,000-plus crowd, and if the freezing conditions were perfect for a dish served cold, the fires stoked by the home pack were molten to the touch.

Tom Youngs, the England and Lions hooker, may have been a peripheral figure in recent months, owing to a combination of personal injury and family illness, but he was back to his most rumbustious here, give or take the odd dodgy line-out throw.

Julian Salvi? The Australian flanker had himself a party at the expense of his old club, denying them the thing they craved most – that is to say, a sight of the ball – during a one-sided first half. Marcos Ayerza? The piano-playing Puma prop from the pampas was at his most pugnacious, playing a starring role in many of the fractious outbursts that punctuated proceedings from first minute to last.

Bath were nothing like themselves up front and even less recognisable behind the scrum. With George Ford, Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph in midfield, everything in the attacking garden has been rosy. With Joseph off-limits with an ankle injury, Eastmond lasting a mere 10 minutes before hobbling miserably towards the dressing room, and Ford having something of a rough one, it was almost as though they had been blighted by permafrost. There was the odd creative spark from Ollie Devoto, but nothing much else.

Certainly, there was no sign of a match-winning contribution from the celebrity cross-coder Sam Burgess, despite continuing talk of an early promotion to the England squad. During the second half, with the game pretty much lost, the Yorkshireman put his shoulder to the wheel with some muscular carries in the heavy traffic, but by and large the contest passed him by once more. Anthony Allen, the Leicester midfielder, may remember his opponent for one particular heavy tackle early on, but Burgess did not leave even the slightest mark on the consciousness of the public at large.

“One try apiece at Welford Road is no disgrace,” argued Mike Ford, the Bath boss. It was a reasonable point on the face of it, not least because the West Countrymen would have left with something tangible had son George not shanked a straightforward conversion of Ross Batty’s maul-drive try as the clock ticked down to zero. But, in truth, the nature of the defeat was more alarming than the fact of it.

If Cockerill’s assertion that Leicester “wanted it more” was accurate – and it seemed that way to most fair-minded observers – Bath have questions to ask of themselves.

Leicester went through the same process of self-analysis as recently as last month, following the painful derby defeat at Northampton.

“We watched a few clips of us being bullied at the breakdown and recognised that it needed sorting,” said Cockerill. “Basically, the message to the players was this: be as tough as you need to be, or don’t play. It’s why I’m so pleased for them after this performance. This is their side, their club and their victory.”

Bath were first on the scoreboard, Ford clipping over a penalty in the fifth minute following some tackle-area indiscipline from the otherwise exemplary Jordan Crane.

Leicester were up and away by the end of the first quarter, however, Owen Williams, the subject of a serious contractual tug-of-love between his native Wales and his adopted Midlands, levelling things from the tee and Youngs burrowing over in traditional hooker’s fashion from a line-out drive.

This was more than a little ironic, given that the line-out was Bath’s most profitable theatre of action, and if Leicester continue to mess up in this department despite the presence of such accomplished figures as Graham Kitchener, Geoff Parling and Jamie Gibson, their rise up the table may not continue uninterrupted. But with Salvi maintaining his stratospheric standards in the scavenging stakes, they sure know how to put the squeeze on opponents when the ball is in play – and are likely to be even more effective when Dan Cole and Manu Tuilagi are declared available at some point over the next fortnight or so.

At the half-time whistle, the Bath players stayed on the field for an all-inclusive rollicking, conducted by their captain, Stuart Hooper, with help from a variety of senior lieutenants. A fat lot of good it did them.

Within seconds of the restart they were scrambling to deal with an intelligent blind-side box kick from Ben Youngs and shortly thereafter they made the cardinal sin of throwing daft offloads while in full retreat. “Shovelling shit” it is called in the trade, and Leicester capitalised in spades with another Williams penalty.

When Henry Thomas, on at tight-head prop for the England incumbent David Wilson, hit the deck at a scrum, the outside-half hit the spot for a fourth time. From there on in, it was not a matter of whether Bath would lose, but by how many. In the event, they lost by a little too much and returned home empty-handed. Again.

Leicester: Try T Youngs; Penalties Williams 4. Bath: Try Batty; Penalty Ford.

Leicester M Tait; A Thompstone, V Goneva, A Allen (S Bai 65), M Benjamin; O Williams, B Youngs (capt); M Ayerza (M Rizzo 30-36 and 71), T Youngs (L Ghiraldini 62), F Balmain, G Kitchener, G Parling, J Gibson, J Salvi, J Crane (R Barbieri 63).

Bath A Watson; H Agulla (S Rokoduguni 61), S Burgess, K Eastmond (O Devoto 10), M Banahan; G Ford, C Cook (M Young 49); P James (N Auterac 51), R Webber (R Batty 51), D Wilson (H Thomas 51), S Hooper (capt), D Attwood (D Day 62), M Garvey, F Louw, C Fearns (L Houston 59).

Referee M Carley (Kent).