DEMOLISHED BY THE ROK!
Flying Bath wing spoils Tuilagi’s comeback
MANU TUILAGI’S try on his competitive comeback brought false hope to Leicester yesterday, as Bath withstood the hosts’ formidable firepower to claim a landmark win at Welford Road.
This was not in the script, certainly not as Tuilagi or George Ford or the rest of the Tigers’ predatory back line would have imagined it. All the pre-match focus had been on how the East Midlands club had amassedssed such a devastating arsenal with the return of Ford, the recoveryvery of Tuilagi and Matt Toomuamua and the acquisition of Jonny May. They werere upstaged.
Max Clark scored twoo tries and Semesa Rokoduguni added a scorching, long-range effort after seizing a pass from Ford.
Last season, thatt would have representedd a slick exchange betweenen Bath team-mates — this time it was an interception which led to a 75-metre finish. Just after the hour, Todd Blackadder’s side led 27-11 but the match erupted in the final 10 minutes.
Kahn Fotuali’i was yellow-carded for the umpteenth high tackle of the match and Bath captain Matt Garvey followed his scrum-half to the sin bin for the same offence.
In the last minute, Matt Banahan became the third player from the West Country club to go the same way, but Fotuali’i returned as 13 defenders continued to repel 15 attackers.
May touched down twice in the final seven minutes to set up a grandstand finish and the Tigers went to the corner from one last penalty. But Wales lock Luke Charteris poached the lineout and the smash-and-grab was complete.
Charteris’s leap was perhaps only surpassed by that of Tuilagi in the 24th minute. His celebration was jubilant after Ben Youngs had sent Telusa Veainu away on the left and Brendon O’Connor took an inside pass before the flanker released Leicester’s No 13. Tuilagi’s last competitive appearance had been in January, when a knee injury came as the latest shattering setback to his career.
He lasted the full 80 minutes yesterday but had few opportunities to cut loose. The same could be said of all the hosts’ dangerous backs. Leicester were like a car salesman who had mislaid the keys to a gleaming fleet of Ferraris and monster trucks.
The home pack did not deliver the front-foot ball that was needed to set off fireworks further out. There were a few fierce blasts from Ellis Genge and Mike Williams when he was dispatched from the bench late on, but no consistent driving threat. Leicester were forced to rely on the jinking, darting efforts of Ford and Ben Youngs, but it was not enough.
In contrast, Bath’s pack made headway. After Banahan’s leftwing gallop paved the way for Clark’s first try, the centre claimed his second.
Then came Rokoduguni’s poaching masterpiece, demonstrating the speed and stepping class which makes his regular England omissions so puzzling. Leicester came out after the break full of purpose, but Rhys Priestland added two more penalties to one by Ford. Then, after Fotuali’i went off, aggrieved, Ben Youngs conjured a glorious opening for the Tigers which was squandered by Graham Kitchener.
Harry Thacker ignited another raid but spilled the ball over the line, then May tore through Rokoduguni’s attempted tackle to score. Two minutes from time, May again received the ball in space and dived to finish well by the flag. Ford’s conversion left Leicester in range of a remarkable turnaround, but Charteris’s lineout steal denied them.
Blackadder revealed his side trained away from home, against the Blues and Dragons in Wales, to try to end their struggles on the road. The Kiwi director of rugby said: ‘A lot of teams turn up here already beaten but we turned up ready to go. We will take a lot of confidence from this.’
Leicester counterpart Matt O’Connor said: ‘We had enough opportunities. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board.’