England continue to ignore George Ford and Leicester Tigers continue to reap the benefits. The fly half led his men to a bonus-point eighth win of the season with a personal haul of 25 points against a Bath team that remain winless this season.
However, this was a Bath performance of real grit and they did not look like the worst team in the Gallagher Premiership as they made Leicester battle hard to hold on to the unbeaten start. While Bath are at the bottom, Leicester are clear at the top despite being without their large international contingent.
This game featured Ford and Danny Cipriani, two No 10s who know what it is like to be ignored by Eddie Jones. Ford is a more recent casualty of the England head coach despite being central to everything the Tigers have achieved this season.
Ford was the first to make an impact, kicking an early penalty that coincided with a firework display behind one of the stands. However, rather than launching an all-out Leicester attack, it triggered a Bath assault initiated by Tom Ellis’s tackle on Nemani Nadolo that appeared to take the large Fijian past the horizontal, a remarkable feat in itself.
Bath moved smoothly upfield, where Cipriani’s clever pass put Tom Dunn into space and he fed the scrum half Ollie Fox, who gave Max Clark the chance to cross for the first try, which Cipriani converted.
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Bath then made life difficult for themselves with the wing Will Muir collecting a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on. Ford then kicked to within five metres. This is Leicester’s favourite position and their driving lineout did the business yet again, with Nic Dolly driven over for his sixth try in eight matches. Ford added the conversion.
Leicester then lost the full back Freddie Burns to an injury, with Bryce Hegarty taking over while Semesa Rokoduguni failed a head injury assessment for Bath, bringing Ruaridh McConnochie into the action.
The replacement wing chased a high kick that caused mayhem in the Leicester defence and won a penalty that Cipriani kicked. Ford replied for Leicester, who again used the lineout to build their advantage, with Dan Kelly feeding the strong-running Matt Scott, who brushed off tacklers to race to the line for Ford to convert. Another break by Fox forced Leicester to concede a penalty that Cipriani kicked, and after Cyle Brink had been shown a yellow card for a ruck offence, the captain Josh McNally appeared to have scored the second Bath try. The television match official (TMO) ruled that he had reached for the line after being tackled, although that appeared to be a harsh verdict, and Bath were left trailing 20-13 at the break after one of their better showings this season.
Ford made it a ten-point lead yet again, only for Bath to punish more errors by the home side and scrum pressure led to a prolonged assault on the Leicester line and this time the TMO awarded McNally the try. which Cipriani converted.
Richard Wigglesworth arrived at No 9 and provided a high kick that Cipriani was unable to deal with. Then, after three attacking lineouts were held up, Bath’s defence was caught short as Wigglesworth’s cut-out pass found Ford, who converted his own try.
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Cipriani brought the lead back to seven points with a penalty and, as the replacements arrived, Leicester raised their tempo and Ford rewarded the sustained pressure with a penalty kick from in front of the posts. With Kieran Vereden getting a late yellow card, Bath conceded yet another driving-maul try from the lineout, scored by Tom Cowan-Dickie.