Bath tame toothless Tigers

Leicester slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat in the LV= Cup and finish bottom of their pool after a 26-12 home defeat by Bath.

Tries from Nick Scott, Tom Biggs, Simon Taylor and David Barnes earned Bath a bonus point to keep alive their slim hopes of progressing to the semi-finals.

Leicester were dealt an early blow when Rob Hawkins was yellow-carded for punching within two minutes of the start, but Bath were unable to take advantage of their extra man.

Bath, with the likes of Danny Grewcock, Duncan Bell and Taylor in their forward line-up, had the superiority in the scrums with the Tigers conceding frequent penalties at the set-piece.

The visitors were able to build a platform in the Tigers' 22 and from a line-out they sucked in the home defence to leave Scott with a simple run in for the opening try after 23 minutes, with Sam Vesty kicking the conversion.

Leicester replied with a score from deep as Jeremy Staunton neatly chipped over the Bath defence, Matt Smith hacked on and Lucas Amorosino collected the loose ball to race away and score.

Another try quickly followed but this time for the visitors, as Tom Biggs finished off another excellent passing movement.

Almost immediately back came the Tigers to level the scores, with Dan Hipkiss instrumental against the side he is to join next season.

Hawkins sent-off

The England centre first fended off two defenders on a storming touchline run and fed Thomas Waldrom, before taking the return pass and evading two more Bath players, before Slater picked up and scored. Staunton converted to again tie the scores.

On the stroke of half-time Hawkins was sent off by Welsh referee James Jones after a second yellow card for using his elbow in a tackle.

The Tigers lost Matt Smith with a leg injury but despite being a man down they matched their opponents in a scoreless third quarter.

Eventually the man-advantage told and with 14 minutes remaining Taylor drove over from a close range scrum for a try which Vesty converted.

Waldrom was then yellow-carded and the remaining 13 Leicester players were quickly stretched, as Barnes grabbed a late try to secure Bath's bonus point.