Bath sealed a 26-25 victory with a late penalty to win by the narrowest of margins, despite Jeremy Staunton scoring all of Leicester's points.
Bath left it very late to record a valuable win over Leicester, in a throughly entertaining game at the Recreation Ground.
Bath were the first on the scoreboard here, with Sam Vesty landing an early fourth minute penalty. Leicester responded quickly though, fly-half Staunton intercepting a pass to run under the posts a few minutes later, converting himself to put the away side on top.
Staunton added two penalties in the next ten minutes to leave Leicester in the ascendancy, and when he added his third approaching half-time, the away side looked to be out of sight already.
Bath fought back well though, Vesty landing his second penalty of the day, and when Lock Dave Attwood dived under the posts just before the interval, it was very much game on again, 16-13 at the break.
The away side started much the better in the second half, Staunton adding another two penalties to an ever-increasing personal tally, but back came Bath to add their second try of the contest, winger Matt Carraro diving over in the corner, with substitute Tom Heathcote landing an excellent conversion to leave two between them.
Both sides then traded the lead with a penalty apiece, with Leicester taking the lead late on through Staunton, only for Bath to score a last ditch penalty to snatch the points away from The Tigers, who slip to their second defeat in as many games.
The scorers:
For Bath:
Tries: Attwood, Carraro
Cons: Heathcote, Vesty
Pens: Heathcote 2, Vesty 2
For Leicester:
Tries: Staunton
Cons: Staunton
Pens: Staunton 6
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Matt Carraro, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Ben Williams, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Sam Vesty 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Guy Mercer, 6 Ben Skirving, 5 Ryan Caldwell, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 Kane Palma-Newport, 2 Pieter Dixon, 1 David Flatman (c).
Replacements: 16 Ross Batty, 17 Charlie Beech, 18 Duncan Bell, 19 Will Spencer, 20 Andy Beattie, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Tom Heathcote, 23 Olly Woodburn.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Niall Morris, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Mathew Tait, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 James Grindal, 8 Julian Salvi, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Steve Mafi, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Michael Holford, 2 George Chuter (c), 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Jonny Harris, 18 Peter Bucknall, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Ben Pienaar, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 George Ford, 23 Andy Forsyth.
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
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