Spoils shared at The Rec

Leicester finally put an end to their try drought, but had to be content with just a point from their trip to Bath after a hard-fought encounter at The Rec.

The Tigers had failed to breach the try-line in their opening three matches of the league campaign, but finally crossed the whitewash when hooker Mefin Davies touched down in the first half.

Indeed, they scored a second try through Dan Hipkiss seven minutes from time that looked to have earned them victory, but were denied when Bath fly-half Nicky Little returned from the sin-bin to kick his fifth penalty and claim a share of the spoils.

It was the Fijian international that opened the scoring for the hosts on seven minutes with his first penalty, only for opposite number Jeremy Staunton to reply in kind almost directly from the restart.

Little restored Bath's lead on 12 minutes and the two stand-offs then traded further penalties to make the scoreline 9-6.

But with both sides playing attacking, running rugby a try seemed inevitable and it arrived on 24 minutes through Davies.

Finding himself in space out in the left corner, the Welshman was on hand to collect a clever pass from Lewis Moody and finished to register Leicester's first try since Jordan Crane's in last season's Premiership final some 274-minutes of play previously.

Staunton's fine kick added the extras to move the visitors ahead for the first time, but the lead only lasted 11 minutes.

Matt Banahan made sure Bath led at the interval as he used his speed and power to bulldoze past Johne Murphy for the hosts' only try, although Little's missed conversion saw that it was just a one-point advantage at 14-13.

Little made amends with his fourth penalty on 44 minutes to stretch the lead, but then blotted his copybook with a dangerous tackle on Geordan Murphy that saw him shown a yellow card just five minutes later.

Murphy recovered but then clashed heads with Joe Maddock trying to touch down his own kick ahead and played no further part in the game.

Bath stood firm while Little was in the sin-bin, but looked in danger of losing when Leicester regained the lead with seven minutes remaining.

Scrum-half Ben Youngs collected a loose ball and set off on a jinking run before releasing fellow replacement Hipkiss who sped in to touch down in the corner.

Staunton kicked the resultant conversion to edge his side 20-17 ahead, but another infringement by the visitors handed Little the chance to level up.

The Fijian held his nerve to land the kick and neither side was subsequently able to fashion a chance to steal victory.