Try-scorer: Stephen Donald
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Leicester Tigers picked up a 17-12 victory over Bath in a feisty Aviva Premiership fixture at Welford Road that produced three red cards.
Both kickers were guilty of missing early penalties but the visitors did eventually take the initiative as an incisive run from Nick Abendanon created the time and space for Stephen Donald, who deceived Adam Thompstone and Brett Deacon with a dummy and coasted over for the opening try.
The Tigers nearly drew level midway through the first half as they put several well-worked phases of play together but Niall Morris' try was ruled out by the TMO for a forward pass by Graham Kitchener.
George Ford did finally find his kicking boots to get the home side on the scoreboard with a penalty early in the second half and, after Simon Taylor was sent to the sin bin, he edged his team in front with another long-range attempt.
Leicester weren't ahead for long though as Donald's long pass put Matt Banahan away down the left wing and the giant centre popped the ball inside for Tom Biggs to stroll over the whitewash.
A feisty encounter then turned distinctly sour moments later as the influential South African Francois Louw was sent off for the use of an elbow, prompting a lengthy period of ill-discipline from both sides.
With Bath down to 14 men, Thompstone finished off an overlap and Ford added another penalty to put the hosts ahead again before the match became almost farcical with players exiting the fray left, right and centre.
Banahan was given a red card for a nasty-looking high tackle that left Anthony Allen out cold for quite some time and Brett Deacon suffered the same fate for throwing a punch at the Bath centre in the aftermath.
The drama didn't end there as the TMO was called into again soon afterwards and Donald was sin-binned for flailing his arms in the direction of replacement Dan Bowden's face.
Amid it all, Ford slotted over another three points with the aid of the left-hand post to stretch the Tigers' lead and the severely depleted Bath outfit were never really likely to mount a comeback.
Both teams played some enterprising rugby despite the anarchy and ill-discipline of the first ever Premiership encounter to feature three red cards but Leicester held on to continue their excellent home record against their arch enemy.
The scorers:
For Leicester:
Try: Thompstone
Pen: Ford 4
Yellow card: Taylor (49 mins), Donald (65 mins)
Red card: B Deacon (64 mins)
For Bath:
Tries: Donald, Biggs
Con: Donald
Red card: Louw (57 mins), Banahan (64 mins)
Leicester: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Niall Morris, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Adam Thompstone, 10 George Ford, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Brett Deacon, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Louis Deacon (c), 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Jonny Harris, 18 Fraser Balmain, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Jordan Crane, 21 Micky Young, 22 Dan Bowden, 23 Geordan Murphy.
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Kyle Eastmond, 13 Horacio Agulla, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Guy Mercer, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Brett Sharman, 17 Charlie Beech, 18 Kane Palma-Newport, 19 Dominic Day, 20 Josh Ovens, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Tom Heathcote, 23 Jack Cuthbert.
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Assistant referees: Nigel Carrick, Alan Hughes
Timekeeper: Trevor Fisher
Assessor: Matthew Peters
Comments
APV1 says...
Hold on!
Mears has been banned for 2 weeks as well!
WTF was going on at Welford Road?!
Posted 21:38 04th December 2012
APV1 says...
Just watched the "highlights". Bananaman deserved a red, and 3 weeks seems fair. Deacon shouldn't have punched, but it's a no-brainer red. They didn't show the Flo elbow (Flo-bow / Flelbow..?), but it's another no-brainer if he did.
What a shame. I think we could have beaten them otherwise - we seemed to be playing the better rugby.
Posted 21:33 04th December 2012
APV1 says...
I see that Deacon's been banned by a Leicester internal review, which is a nice precedent. I wonder whether Bath will follow suit?
Posted 11:41 04th December 2012
APV1 says...
I haven't even seen the Highlights yet, Wondering whether I should.
A bonus point to take away from Welford Road is always welcome, but otherwise, how bad was it?
Posted 11:34 03rd December 2012
jamesliveinhope says...
found this quite difficult to watch, mainly because of the Leicester commentary team.
Felt that the Banahan red was harsh, tall man meets ducking opponent - he should have pulled out but yellow for clumsiness not the red given - Donald's yellow was nonsense and the sort of incident that goes on all over every park, every matchday, I'd like to say that the crowd bought that card but it was a TMO decision.
This may highlight a problem with the TMO system of review - referees are trained to apply contextual judgement when applying disciplinary sanctions on the park. TMOs are not involved in the heat of the situation and so cannot apply that judgement. Perhaps they should only be allowed to report on the event and not be allowed to recommend sanction.
Posted 23:10 01st December 2012
1st58 says...
Probably as bad a display of officiating from the TJ's and Ref as I have ever seen.
This was not a dirty match - can't comment on the Loouw red card, as didnt see the incident, but the Banahan tackle (imo) wasnt nearly as bad as made out, there was no malice but sadly Allen was really hurt - so although I think yellow was the correct option, a red was maybe a fair call - Deacon was always likely to receive the same colour as was adjudicated to Banahan - but again, yellow for me. Donald's sin binning was a joke, and the TJ's could not even position themselves properly to judge on kicks for the corner.
Hard fought by both sides, and as I say again, Not a dirty game at all.
Posted 22:37 01st December 2012