Bath breeze past Leeds

Dixon (left): Solid display

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• Bath

Players

• Olly Barkley
• Joe Maddock

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  • Leigh Hinton
  • Danny Grewcock
  • Apolosi Satala

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Bath bounced back from a home loss to Wasps with a 34-15 bonus-point victory over bottom club Leeds at Headingley Carnegie.

Tries from Joe Maddock, Danny Grewcock, Jonathon Faamatuainu, Matt Banahan and 14 points from the boot of Olly Barkley condemned Leeds to their eighth successive Guinness Premiership defeat.

The Tykes produced a spirited second-half display and two tries from Apolosi Satala gave the home fans a glimmer of hope before Bath raced clear.

The win takes Steve Meehan's men within five points of leaders Gloucester - while Leeds remain rooted to the foot of the table, four points adrift of nearest rivals Worcester.

In a week revolving around the future of Bath fly-half Barkley - it was fitting that the soon-to-be Gloucester player struck the first points of the afternoon with a penalty on seven minutes.

As the visitors continued to boss the early stages their efforts were rewarded 18 minutes in when Maddock went over following good work from the impressive Barkley.

The Bath fly-half converted and then fired home his second penalty as the visitors raced into a 13-0 lead inside 25 minutes.

Powerful

Hinton notched Leeds only points of the first-half when he converted a penalty on 30 minutes and Bath cruised into the interval 13-3 up with Leeds rarely threatening.

The home side stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second-half and powerful Fijian wing Satala scored his first try on 48 minutes after an excellent break from Jonny Hepworth.

However, the comeback never materialised and when Grewcock bundled his way over eight minutes later, Bath had a firm stranglehold on proceedings.

More powerful forward play saw Faamatuainu force his way over the line to take the score to 27-8 with 19 minutes still to play.

Satala epitomised the Tykes' battling spirit by hitting back on 67 minutes with a fine finish and Di Bernardo slotted home the conversion.

But, with only three minutes left to play, Banahan ensured that Bath had the final word when he dived over to seal a comfortable win for the visitors.

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