Bath stage a heroic last gasp comeback, to leave the Tigers licking their wounds at the Rec!
The Bath youngsters thrilled a sell out crowd at the Rec against rivals Leicester Tigers thanks to a last gasp penalty try to take the spoils.
Looking to continue their momentum from last week’s positive result against London Irish, Matt Garvey led out the team in his one hundredth game for the club.
The game started well for the Tigers who raced into a 0-10 lead with a penalty from Tom Hardwick and a try courtesy of Jonah Holmes after a charge down from Freddie Burns’ kick. Making amends Burns knocked over two penalties in quick succession to keep them within striking distance at 6-10.
With seven minutes remaining, Tigers continued to show they weren’t here to make up the numbers, as the forwards recycling from the lineout and Adam Thompstone bundled his way over to extend the lead to 6-17.
The scoring in the first half hadn’t finished there, with a moment of magical brilliance from ex-Tigers man Burns who running across the pitch tried an inventive up and under that floated over the defensive line who were staring in utter bemusement at the audacity of Burns as he collected and went diving over the try line and take the score to 13-17 at the interval.
Having reduced the deficit to one point, Leicester again showed their resilience by Jonah Holmes popping up to go under the posts after some neat work from centre Jordan Olowofela to extend their lead once again.
Burns converted another penalty to keep Bath in the game but a bonus point try from Leicester gave the home team a lot of work to do with only twenty minutes remaining and the score at 19-31.
Zach Mercer was summoned from the bench and immediately had an impact as the forwards pushed their counterparts back towards their try line and as the Tigers scrumhalf tried to escape made an unforced error that allowed Mercer to leap onto the ball and get over the whitewash.
Within a converted score the 16th man really came to the fore as the Bath crowd roared the blue, black and white on as they sensed a win was there for the taking as the game went into the final ten minutes.
Bath attacked and attacked and were camped inside the Tigers 22, the persistence paid off as the forwards having been brilliant throughout the match were rewarded after battering the Leicester scrum into submission and were forced into conceding a penalty try and the crowd went barmy as the home side took the lead.
Bath managed to cling onto the ball at the restart and held on for the last sixty seconds and the ball was given to the man of the moment Freddie Burns to kick the ball into the clutches of the delighted home crowd.
A game that ebbed and flow the Bath team performed heroically once again and showed age is no issue, and with one game left in the group against Newcastle Falcons, Bath will be hoping that another win will see them into the semi finals of the Anglo Welsh trophy.
Alex Hill
@ah25eightent
