Bath made it two wins from two in the Premiership this season after they saw off rivals Leicester Tigers 20-15 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday.
Will Muir, Tom de Glanville and Guy Pepper crossed for tries while Finn Russell and Ben Spencer knocked over a total of five points off the tee for the visitors.
Leicester‘s tries came via Jack van Poortvliet and Dan Cole with Jamie Shillcock kicking a conversion and penalty goal as Michael Cheika‘s side fell to a defeat.
A poor box-kick from Leicester skipper Van Poortvliet gave Bath the chance to exert huge early pressure with Tigers’ try-line being continuously battered but the visitors could not make it count.
They turned down two kickable penalties in favour of attacking line-outs but it proved to be the wrong call as twice they were held up over the line.
A 50/22 from fly-half Shillcock relieved the siege and it was now the hosts’ turn to threaten but their momentum was halted when centre Izaia Perese was yellow-carded for a high challenge on Joe Cokanasiga who departed to fail an HIA.
Tigers looked to have overcome the setback when a pass from Hanro Liebenberg sent Ollie Hassell-Collins racing over in the corner but the wing lost possession in the process of touching down.
However, the first score still went the way of the home side with a penalty from Shillcock giving them a 21st-minute lead.
That advantage was short-lived as Russell made a clean break but the move was faltering until Ollie Lawrence recovered possession for Muir to gallop down the left flank and score.
Perese was able to return from the sin-bin with no further damage done to the scoreboard and in time to see his side regain the lead.
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Two poor kicks from Russell put his side under the cosh and Van Poortvliet made him pay by dummying over with Shillcock’s conversion giving Leicester a 10-5 interval lead.
Five minutes after the restart, Muir was helped off with a leg injury so Bath were forced to play fly-half Orlando Bailey and flanker Josh Bayliss on the wing.
The reshuffle did not stop them producing a well-executed move which ended with De Glanville out-flanking the cover defence to bring the scores level.
A speculative hoof out of defence from Lawrence won a 50/22 and gave Bath an attacking platform from where Pepper finished off a series of forward drives. Russell converted but missed a penalty before Spencer stepped up to kick one and seal victory.
There was just time for Leicester to secure a losing bonus-point when Cole forced his way over from close range.
The teams
Leicester: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Izaia Perese, 12 Dan Kelly, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Jamie Shillcock, 9 Jack van Poortvliet (c), 8 Olly Cracknell, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 5 George Martin, 4 Harry Wells, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Charlie Clare, 1 Nicky Smith
Replacements: 16 Finn Theobald-Thomas, 17 James Cronin, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Côme Joussain, 20 Kyle Hatherell, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Mike Brown
Bath: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Will Butt, 11 Will Muir, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer (c), 8 Alfie Barbeary, 7 Guy Pepper, 6 Josh Bayliss, 5 Ross Molony, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Beno Obano
Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Vilikesa Sela, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Ted Hill, 21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Jaco Coetzee
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys
Assistant referees: Christophe Ridley, Gareth Holsgrove
TMO: Hamish Smales
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