Little between Bath and Leicester
A dramatic final ten minutes at the Recreation Ground on Saturday evening saw Bath and the Leicester Tigers end their fourth round Guinness Premiership clash with the scores level at 20-all.
Open and enterprising, the match was certainly one of the most entertaining Premiership matches of the new season so far. Both teams were keen to throw the ball around when the opportunity was there.
One big positive for Leicester of course was the breaking of their try scoring duck. Richard Cockerill's men finally crossed the try line, through Mefin Davies and Dan Hipkiss, but could not go one to claim their third victory in four games.
Bath flyhalf Nicky Little was the star for his side. Showing composure under pressure, Little was the central figure to everything good about the Bath performance and, with time running out, kicked the penalty which leveled the scores.
The game had a positive start. The home side perhaps shading it and getting the vocal crowd behind them.
Leicester were going backwards in the contact situations and, with Matt Banahan playing at outside centre, Bath were looking dangerous with quick ball.
Flank Jonny Faamatuainu in particular was showing up well in the early exchanges and eventually referee Nigel Owens awarded Michael Claassen's men a penalty after seven minutes. Little made no mistake, opening the scoring and giving his pack of forwards some sort of reward for their positive start.
Disappointingly though for the home side it took just a minute for Leicester to level the scores as Julian Salvi conceded a penalty from the restart - Staunton, as ever, the provider for Leicester.
Showing some genuine belief and confidence, Bath kept the pressure on Leiceser and forced another couple penalties for Little to try and convert from the kicking tee. The Fijian No.10 kept up his 100% success rate and handed Bath a 9-3 lead with a quarter of an hour gone.
Slowly Leicester started to fight their way back into the Bath half. Struggling to break the game line but certainly putting themselves into better positions on the paddock, Staunton added three points to narrow the gap between the sides.
Both sides were trying to gain dominance in the kicking battle but, when chances presented themselves, were keen to give the ball some air as well.
Suddenly then, taking their chance, Leicester struck. Half a break from Geordan Murphy put Anthony Allen in space and created the go forward ball which had Bath at sixes and sevens. Quick ball spread wide found Davies in space and able to finally end Leicester's remarkable try draught. The conversion successful, Leicester took the lead 13-9 with 28 minutes gone.
Shontayne Hape, Joe Maddock, Peter Short and Banahan were all becoming prominent ball carries for Bath as time wore on. Ultimately, perhaps expectedly, it was Banahan who broke the Leicester defence. A well constructed try, coming after a long series of phases, put Bath back in front 14-13 just five minutes before the interval.
Starting the second period as they had finished the first, Bath were the first to strike in the second forty - another Little penalty taking the score to 17-13.
50 minutes into the match and Bath were reduced to 14 min for ten minutes - Little was yellow carded for a late hit on Tiger captain Geordan Murphy.
Murphy's bad day got even worse moments later when, chasing his own kick into the Bath in goal area, he seemed to dislocate his shoulder while trying to dot the ball down.
As time marched on Leicester started to dominate possession and territory but, like they have for much of the new season, they struggled to make it count.
Trailing by four points with ten minutes left, Staunton missed his second penalty of the half and again let Bath off the hook. A minute later though Dan Hipkiss struck a massive blow.
Replacement scrumhalf Ben Youngs created the space with a darting, cross-field run, but Hipkiss' finish was fantastic. Outstripping Banahan, Hipkiss went on the outside of Claassens and put Leicester 20-17 ahead.
Bath weren't done though. Just a minute after the restart, with Leicester conceding a penalty, Little casually struck a forty metre goal to level the score with three minutes left.
Neither team were able to snatch a winning score but it certainly wasn't through lack of trying. Both teams, trying to be attacking, made a number of unforced errors on the night and will leave the ground wondering how they let victory slip away.
The Scorers
For Bath
Tries: Banahan
Pen: Little 5
For Leicester
Tries: Davies, Hipkiss
Pen: Staunton 2
Cons: Staunton 2
The teams:
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Matt Banahan, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Jack Cuthbert, 10 Nicky Little, 9 Michael Claassens (captain), 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Jonny Faamatuainu, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Peter Short, 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Lee Mears, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 David Flatman, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 Stuart Hooper, 20 Andy Beattie, 21 Scott Bemand, 22 Ryan Davis, 23 Michael Stephenson.
Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy (captain), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Anthony Allen, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Johne Murphy, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 James Grindal, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Craig Newby, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Richard Blaze, 3 Julian White, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Joe Duffey, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Boris Stankovich, 19 Geoff Parling, 20 Brett Deacon, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Dan Hipkiss, 23 Matt Smith.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Robin Goodliffe, Stuart Terheege
TMO: Laurie Bryant, Geoff Warren