Bath held off a spirited Leicester Tigers side to complete the last part of their treble quest by securing a 23-21 triumph in the Premiership final at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
After claiming the Premiership Rugby Cup and the Challenge Cup earlier in the season, the West Country outfit sealed their first league title for 29 years by overcoming the Tigers in the showpiece event.
Johann van Graan’s men were in control for large chunks of the contest, particularly in the second half, but the Tigers never went away.
Leicester opened the scoring via Jack van Poortvliet’s try but it was Bath who went into the break ahead thanks to Thomas du Toit’s score and two Finn Russell penalties.
Max Ojomoh then extended their buffer to 13 points and, at stage, Van Graan’s side were in command, but they were indebted to Russell’s third three-pointer to seal the Premiership title after scores from Solomone Kata and Emeka Ilione set up a thrilling finish.
It was always going to be a brutal forward battle and the set-piece and breakdown was unsurprisingly incredibly compete.
Leicester very much had the ascendency early on, winning a scrum penalty and getting to within a few metres of the Bath line through a stunning Handre Pollard touchfinder.
Michael Cheika’s men duly set up a maul, a real weapon for them all season, and surged towards the whitewash. Although it was brought down – legally according to referee Karl Dickson – Van Poortvliet was on hand to score and move the Midlanders in front.
The Tigers would continue to compete well in the forward confrontations, but their opponents edged their way into the contest via their kick-chase game.
It was a slight surprise that they had such joy, given the presence of Freddie Steward in Leicester’s backfield, but the sheer accuracy of Ben Spencer’s box-kicking and the height Will Muir was getting in the air enabled them to build pressure.
They spent plenty of time in the Leicester 22 but their only points in the opening 25 minutes came through a Russell three-pointer.
The West Countrymen were starting to find their rhythm in attack, however, and they were finally rewarded through Du Toit. It came from a flowing move, one which went through a number of phases, before the Springboks prop touched down from close-range.
Bath were then handed another boost as Julian Montoya was sin-binned for a high shot on Ted Hill before the Tigers could have received another sin-binning when Nicky Smith appeared to cynically play the ball on the ground near his own line.
Dickson deemed that Smith did not intentionally knock it out of a Bath hand, however, and Van Graan’s charges had to make do with just a second Russell penalty to leave the match finely poised at the break.
Leicester were angry at the interval, believing that the infringement which led to the Scotsman’s three-pointer should have gone their way, but they had the chance to immediately cancel that out at the start of the second period.
It appeared a simple kick for Pollard but the two-time Rugby World Cup winner surprisingly missed the target, and it would soon get worse for the Springbok.
The fly-half had been exemplary in a scrappy opening period but he followed that error with another big mistake, this time throwing an intercept pass to Russell.
Bath’s playmaker could have made the line himself but unselfishly decided to pass it inside for Ojomoh to touch down and put the West Country outfit in command.
Ten minutes later and Bath thought they had put the result beyond doubt when Guy Pepper surged down the right to score, but it was brought back for a slight knock-on by Muir in the build-up.
That kept the Tigers in the match and they were then given further hope when Kata went over to move them to within a converted try of their opponents.
Although they were handed a blow when the last action of Dan Cole’s professional career was to receive a yellow card for taking out Russell, Leicester never gave up.
Ilione, who has been outstanding off the bench in recent weeks, showed tremendous strength to score and set up a grandstand finale.
The teams
Bath: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Max Ojomoh, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Will Muir, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Miles Reid, 7 Guy Pepper, 6 Ted Hill, 5 Charlie Ewels, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Beno Obano
Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Ross Moloney, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Ciaran Donoghue, 23 Alfie Barbeary
Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Solomone Kata, 12 Joseph Woodward, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Olly Cracknell, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Cameron Henderson, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Nicky Smith
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 James Cronin, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Matt Rogerson, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Izaia Perese
Referee: Karl Dickson
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce & Adam Leal
TMO: Ian Tempest
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/bath-end-29-years-of-hurt-to-see-off-spirited-leicester-tigers-in-premiership-final-and-complete-remarkable-treble
