Aviva Premiership: Leicester 21-11 Bath
Last Updated: 29/11/15 9:13pm
A late try by England prop Dan Cole enabled Leicester Tigers to maintain their stranglehold over Bath at home in the Aviva Premiership.
Cole scored the touchdown from a driving line-out to clinch a 21-11 victory against Bath who have won just once at Welford Road in the Premiership, that coming way back in 2003.
Leicester, who have won 178 of their 210 home Premiership matches, were outplayed for long periods but outscored the visitors two tries to one, their first coming from Tongan Telusa Veainu, to move into third place in the table. Anthony Watson scored for Bath.
Leicester lock Ed Slater and Bath flanker David Denton were both yellow carded for either side in the second half.
Bath dominated the first half - but still headed back in 11-5 down, with each side scoring a try.
They played virtually all the rugby in a 40-minute period that saw Leicester make only fleeting visits to Bath territory and they usually messed up a move when they did.
Centre Kyle Eastmond showed their intentions with a stunning early break, which ended with an injury to the Leicester captain and full-back Matt Tait, who was replaced by George Catchpole.
Bath then took the lead with an eighth-minute try. It came from a poor up and under by Tigers fly-half Tommy Bell, which was snaffled by Bath.
Scrum-half Niko Matawalu launched a superb counter-attack with a brilliant sidestep and dummy. He found Matt Banahan and the big centre made 25 metres before passing to Agulla, who put Watson over in the corner. Fly-half George Ford missed the conversion.
Bell put the Tigers on the scoreboard with a 15th-minute penalty and they should have done better after flanker Mike Williams burst up field only for Lachlan McCaffrey to throw a forward pass.
Leicester's try came against the run of play, Tonga winger Veainu sprinting 85 metres to score from an interception that ended a Bath siege.
Bell missed the conversion but the try boosted Leicester's confidence and, after a great break by centre Peter Betham, they ended up with another penalty, with Bell making no mistake.
The superb Watson finished the half in style with a fabulous 60-metre counter-attack and five minutes after the break Ford put Bath back in the game with a simple penalty.
He levelled the scores at 11-11 in the 51st minute with another penalty and shortly after Leicester went a man down, with lock Slater, who was making his 100th appearance, sin-binned trying to repel a Bath driving line-out.
Leicester's scrum won a 63rd-minute penalty which Bell missed badly from 40 metres, but he atoned by slotting an easier one moments later.
More Bath indiscipline led to a driving line-out by Leicester and a yellow card for Bath's new signing Denton.
From the subsequent line-out, Leicester drove over and the referee went to the TMO who awarded a try to Cole with six minutes left. Bell slotted the conversion to make it 21-11.