Bath not empty yet says Todd

RUGBY UNION

DEFIANT Bath boss Todd Blackadder refused to admit his side’s season was in bits despite this defeat that left their top-six hopes hanging by a thread.

Leicester outscored Bath by five tries to one to notch up a fifth win on the spin and boost their play-off chances.

Tongan No.8 Sione Kalamafoni scored twice for Tigers and Ellis Genge destroyed the Bath scrum to leave their season in ruins.

Big-spending Bath have virtually no chance of a play-off spot but Blackadder insists their campaign is alive and next year will be a different story.

He said: “We still have a chance of the top six and we will never give up on that. We will come out of this and be better. We will look at everything to make sure next year is the best we have ever had.

“Never waste a crisis as this could be a time for great change. A catastrophe would be when we stop believing in each other.”

Bath actually led 13-10 at half-time despite Genge’s impression of a one-man wrecking ball at the scrums and yellow cards for prop Shaun Knight and scrum-half Kahn Fotuali’i. But in the second half they could hardly get any possession as Tigers, with George Ford running the show, tore into them.

Kalamafoni (above) went over twice from short range, as did scrum-half Sam Harrison, and full-back Telusa Veainu finished off the job.

They even survived the sin-binning of wing and first-half try scorer Adam Thompstone for taking out James Wilson in the air.

Tigers’ director of rugby Matt O’Connor said: “The second half was probably as good as we’ve been. We knew Bath would be committed – it was season on the line stuff.”