Premiership: Leicester 35-22 Bath - Tigers end year with bonus-point win

James Cronin scored one of five tries for Leicester

Leicester beat a much-changed Bath side who missed the chance to finish 2023 back at the top of the Premiership.

Tries from Matt Rogerson, Mike Brown, James Cronin and George Martin gave Tigers a bonus point before half-time, with Louis Schreuder and Orlando Bailey putting Bath on the board.

A penalty try stretched the Tigers' lead to 25 points before late scores from Louie Hennessey and Ewan Richards.

The win moves Leicester above Bristol into seventh, while Bath stay fourth.

With almost 26,000 fans inside a sold-out Welford Road, the match rounded off a weekend during which Northampton Saints climbed above Bath to the top of a congested table.

Just three points separate Saints and sixth-placed Harlequins, with Bath two points behind the leaders.

While Bath came into the game unbeaten through December, Johann van Graan rotated his side and rested the majority of his first-choice starters.

Only three players from the win against Harlequins last weekend were in the starting XV, but the visitors got off to the perfect start when Schreuder scored his first try of the campaign.

The scrum-half intercepted an attempted pass from Handre Pollard to sprint over from his own half, but for the rest of the half it was one-way traffic.

Leicester dominated both possession and the breakdown and eventually made it pay after winning the first turnover, to gain territory with a five-metre line-out. The maul drove forward and Rogerson stretched over for his first Premiership try for the club.

Full-back Brown, starting on the wing for the first time in his Premiership career, ran over in the corner to make it 14-7 and the floodgates stayed open as the penalty count gifted Leicester plenty of time in Bath's 22.

When captain GJ van Velze was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, Cronin scored from the resulting penalty and with a man advantage the Tigers powered straight back into Bath's half and Martin scored under the posts for their fourth try on 34 minutes.

Bailey slotted a penalty for Bath before the break, but no sooner had they got Van Velze back on the pitch, Jaco Coetzee was shown a yellow card as the second half got under way for pulling down a maul, and Leicester were awarded a penalty try to move 35-10 up.

Bath had more opportunities in Leicester's 22 during the second half but lacked accuracy as they tried to launch a comeback.

Finn Theobold-Thomas won a turnover five metres out to deny their forward pack and Max Ojomah threw a long ball straight into touch as they broke forward with numbers.

Teenager Hennessey came on to score his first Premiership try late on before Ewan Richards touched down from a maul with the clock in red to add another consolation and soften the scoreline.

Leicester head coach Dan McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I asked for a response [after the defeat at Exeter] which they were all determined to provide and the first 40 minutes was outstanding.

"Second 40 was frustrating but we came here to get five points and we've done that.

"We're trying to evolve and grow and there are good signs there. I thought we were really good with our exit game, we were nice and clinical getting out of our end and that put us in the right areas of the field.

"Once we got in their 22, the power game through our maul, first 40 minutes in particular, was excellent."

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I thought we started the game really well, very happy about the first 25 minutes. We had a try-scoring opportunity on the high tackle on Tom de Glanville. The big shift of momentum in the game was minutes 25 to 40. We defended our line, conceded a yellow card and then they punished us.

"The penalty try took the game away from us. We stayed in it but disappointed that we didn't win the game but the Tigers tonight were clearly more clinical than us.

"The belief in the group is there. We believed that we could win this game but we weren't good enough tonight.

"The frustrating thing is our discipline between the two 10-yard lines. Our discipline has been fantastic in the last five weeks, unfortunately we conceded more penalties in a half than we did in games in the last five weeks and I think that was the major difference.

[On squad selection] "We make our decisions, we move forward, we back our squad. Everybody is part of the plan and knows exactly the way we do things."

Leicester: Steward, Simmons, Kelly, Kata, Brown, Pollard, Whiteley; Cronin, Montoya (c), Heyes, Martin, Chessum, Rogerson, Reffell, Wiese.

Replacements: Theobold-Thomas, Van Wyk, Hurd, Wells, Hatherell, Cracknell, Powell, Shillcock.

Bath: Harris, De Glanville, Ojomoh, Butt, Gallagher, Bailey, Schreuder; Schoeman, Faiva, Stuart, Roux, McNally, Van Velze (c), Cloete, Coetzee.

Replacements: Stewart, Du Toit, Jonker, Richards, Green, Carr-Smith, Hennessey, Owen

Sin-bin: GJ Van Velze (30 mins), Jaco Coetzee (44 mins)

Referee: Karl Dickson

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