Tigers kill off Bath
Pressure on Blackadder after damaging defeat
TODD BLACKADDER declared this a ‘do-or-die’ game and Bath were duly handed their death warrant.
Twickenham has felt like a mortuary for English rugby in recent weeks and Bath departed with their season in ruins.
Rooted in eighth place, Champions Cup qualification now seems out of reach and only time will tell whether director of rugby Blackadder survives the summer.
Top-four is the expectation in the West Country but, after yesterday’s defeat by Leicester, Blackadder insisted there is no ultimatum from omnipresent owner Bruce Craig.
‘ There has been more support than pressure,’ he said.
‘When you take on a role like this the pressure is always there.
‘If I didn’t believe we had a team with a work ethic to get out of this, then we would be in a real hole.
‘We will be better for this. Never waste a crisis because it can be a great time for change. A catastrophe would be when we stop believing in each other.’
Leicester have suffered seven straight defeats at The Rec since 2011, yet Bath’s marketeers sacrificed their home advantage for a red-letter day in London.
Bath fed off the 60,000- strong crowd in the first half, with prop Beno Obano leading the defensive charge after yellow cards to Kahn Fotuali’i and Shaun Knight.
‘Beno’s led the charge all year,’ said Blackadder. ‘He’s class, even more so because the team hasn’t been firing on all cylinders. He’s been a shining light.’
Bath’s supporters winced as Leicester applied a 10- minute scrummaging assault, with Ellis Genge asserting his dominance.
‘We thought we would have dominance at the scrum,’ said Tigers coach Matt O’Connor. ‘We probably didn’t expect it to happen as early as it did. It paid dividends for us.’
Tom Dunn’s try cancelled out Adam Thompstone’s score, but Bath t ackled t hemselves i nto exhaustion and their three-point lead at half-time slipped away.
Leicester enjoyed 73 per cent territory as scrum-half Sam Harrison linked up their phases. No 8 Sione Kalamafoni capitalised, scoring twice in 14 minutes.
‘ I thought Sione was the best player on the field by some distance,’ said O’Connor. ‘That second half was probably as good as we’ve been. We put them under pressure at every opportunity.’
When Thomsptone was sin-binned for taking out James Wilson in the air, Bath had a sniff of a comeback. But they lack the attacking edge of their 2015 glory year under Mike Ford, with 14 of their points coming from the boot of Rhys Priestland.
Instead, it was Harrison who went over for 14-man Leicester to secure the bonus point with seven minutes left to play. Telusa Veainu scrambled down the right for a fifth .