Bath Stand Best Chance In Ages Of Beating Tigers

Go Bath Go!
By Glen Leat
January 30 2003

Bath welcome old foes Leicester to the Rec on Saturday hot on the heels of a very disappointing result against Northampton in the Cup. With Leicester appearing to be suffering the slipping down the table fate experienced by Bath a few years ago this must be our best chances in ages to beat them.

There can be few people who follow Bath who were not extremely pleased with the performance against the Saints and not a little frustrated that a draw against London Irish in the semi-finals must have given us an excellent chance of reaching Twickenham for another mammoth day out at HQ. But it is not to be thanks to the antics of an inadequate referee but let's try and follow coach Foley's lead by being upbeat as we go in to this crucial game against the Tigers. "I thought that our players were outstanding - that was the best performance since I have been at the club. I thought that we were the better team, and we are disappointed that we couldn't come away with the win, but it was an outstanding game of rugby. The focus of our season is now to put in more performances like that. We've got Leicester and Gloucester now in the Premiership which will be a huge challenge."

As with all professionals these days the Bath coaching staff are looking forward to the next games rather than dwelling on the unfairness of the last result. Defensive coach Richard Graham told the BathRugby.Com website, “The next two games could determine where we finish in the league. We need to play at the same level of intensity this weekend as we did against Northampton without the little glitches in concentration. We need to be more alert and maintain the consistency as we gave away 19 penalties against the Saints which is a lot.”

Those of us who have been following Bath Rugby for many year always look forward to a clash against the Tigers and this week will be no different. As I think about this fixture I am always minded of previous encounters during our glory days when the big names would travel up to Leicester and often struggle to contain the Leicester forwards, though we always fared better at home; but a win against Leicester was probably the most enjoyable feeling of the season. As you will see from the stats below we have not beaten Leicester since 1999 and this has to be a great opportunity as they are clearly not as on top of their game as they used to be - mind you they are still better than most and neutral will favour an away win over the home victory.

However I'm not a neutral so I'll plump for a home win and an enjoyable Saturday evening sinking a few beers in honour of the Bath boys who continue their improving form.

Click here to remind yourself about the last match against the Leicester Tigers.

Click on to the Leicester site for their perspective on things.

In preparation for this clash of the titans let's have a look at a few recent statistics:

Biggest Win

Player Greats

Last Meetings (Bath scores first)