Rare Cole try helps Tigers sink Bath

Anthony Watson's early try put the visitors in front but despite dominating the first half, it was Tigers who went in at the break with an 11-5 lead, thanks to two Tommy Bell penalties and a Telusa Veainu interception try.

Two George Ford penalties soon after the interval levelled the scores and with Ed Slater in the sin bin for the hosts, Bath looked set to turn the screw. But Welford Road has been something of a fortress of late, with Leicester having rattled off nine consecutive wins on home turf and Bell's third penalty put them back in front.

It was the unlikely figure of Cole who reacted first to ground a loose ball over the line, after it had been deflected backwards by Francois Louw. Bell's conversion stretched the lead out to 10 points andvTigers held on to move back up to third on the table, while the visitors are down in eighth with only two wins from their first five games.

Tigers' hopes took a hit in the first minute of the game, fullback Mathew Tait succumbing to injury with George Catchpole entering the fray. And it was the visitors, with just one loss in their last seven meetings with the Tigers in all competitions, who struck first with a beautiful try from Watson – made all the more impressive considering the weather.

After collecting a high kick, the ball was offloaded to Nikola Matawalu, the Fijian threw an outrageous dummy before releasing Matt Banahan. When the centre fed Watson inside, there was only going to be one winner in the race to the line. Ford could not add the tough extras.

Bell showed him how it was done, in the 12th minute, with a penalty to make it 5-3 to the away side. Overall the half was a story of reset scrums and Bath's territorial dominance but just when they appeared to be gaining the upper hand around the half-hour mark they were hit with a killer blow.

The visitors were attacking down the right when Veainu picked off Nick Auterac's pass and went the length of the field for a score against the run of play. Bell missed the tough conversion but when Peter Betham broke clear from the subsequent restart, the flyhalf made immediate amends with a penalty to send the Tigers to a somewhat fortunate 11-5 lead at the break.

Matawalu started the second half in fine form, a darting break and a clever turnover both putting Mike Ford's side back on the front foot and eventually, a penalty in kickable range was won and Ford made no mistake, slotting over to reduce the gap to 11-8.

The poor weather was limiting the free-flowing game but Bath were grinding their way back into it. A second penalty on the 50-minute mark levelled the scores at 11-11.

Slater then saw yellow for the hosts but the Tigers coped admirably in his absence and after the hour mark, Bell slotted an easy effort in the 66th minute to take the lead again. The game could still go either way but in the 70th minute, the hosts sent a penalty to the corner rather than going for goal and it drew the winning score.

A driving maul from the subsequent lineout went close and when it went to ground, David Denton saw yellow. The Tigers made the most of their numerical advantage, Cole diving onto a loose ball to ground it over the line to score and continue his side's fine run at home.

Scorers:

For Leicester Tigers:

Tries: Veainu, Cole

Con: Bell

Pens: Bell 3

For Bath:

Try: Watson

Pens: Ford 2

Yellow cards: Ed Slater (Leicester Tigers, 52), David Denton (Bath, 72)

Teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Mathew Tait (captain), 14 Adam Thompstone, 13 Peter Betham, 12 Matt Smith, 11 Telusa Veainu, 10 Tommy Bell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Lachlan McCaffrey, 7 Brendon O'Connor, 6 Mike Williams, 5 Mike Fitzgerald, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza.

Replacements: 16 Greg Bateman, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Fraser Balmain, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Tom Croft, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 Seremaia Bai, 23 George Catchpole.

Bath: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Matt Banahan, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 George Ford, 9 Niko Matawalu, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Matt Garvey, 5 Tom Ellis, 4 Stuart Hooper (captain), 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Ross Batty, 1 Nick Auterac.

Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 David Denton, 20 Guy Mercer, 21 Chris Cook, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Tom Homer.

Referee: JP Doyle