Leicester vs Bath match report: dan Cole rolls over to punish Bath’s sloppy handling

Met Office experts confirm that it rains in Auckland, that the wind blows in Wellington and that down south in Christchurch, even the brass monkeys wear fur coats to fend off the cold. Yet the All Blacks, bless ’em, routinely deliver error-free performances in a freezing swamp – a feat so far beyond the capabilities of these age-old Premiership rivals on a wet and wild day in the East Midlands, it was as if they were playing the wrong code of rugby. A bit like Sam Burgess during the World Cup.

“We dropped a lot of ball in training on Friday and we dropped a lot here,” said Mike Ford, the Bath head coach, through gritted teeth before heading off in search of a stiff drink. Ford is not normally lost for words – under normal circumstances, he is more than happy to talk the hind legs of entire herds of donkeys – but his brevity could be excused here. Had he started dishing out the rollickings, he might never have stopped.

Among the many things with which he was not terribly impressed was a decision late in the game to reject a kickable shot at goal – and, in all probability, a valuable losing bonus point – in favour of a high-rolling punt to the corner. Amusingly for those who enjoy a family spat, the man at the heart of this nonsense was the England outside-half George Ford, who also happens to be the coach’s son.

Ford Snr was incandescent at the time – we know this because he stood in the middle of a packed stand, bellowing in frustration – and his face took on a hue of deepest purple when the reserve hooker Tom Dunn was pulled up for a crooked throw at the subsequent line-out, thereby giving the home side a “get out of jail free” card. Asked whether he thought his lad should have gone for the sticks, the former England defence strategist could not have been more to the point. “Yes,” he snapped, with considerable feeling.

Yet when the Bath players report for training tomorrow and undergo what is certain to be an uncomfortable review session, the coaching staff might care to spend at least a few minutes analysing themselves. They chose to travel to the Premiership’s equivalent of a dark alley without a couple of international forwards in the tight-head specialist David Wilson and the lock Dave Attwood. They also elected to play the last quarter of the contest with the substitute props Nathan Catt and Max Lahiff, a decision that handed Leicester the set-piece initiative just when they needed it most. Until then, the young scrummagers Nick Auterac and Henry Thomas had rather enjoyed their outing against two-thirds of the current England front row and the world’s best loose-head operator in Marcos Ayerza.

The brat pack in blue and white hardly had things all their own way, but they won enough decisions against their elders and betters to make life worth living. And being the front-row version of babes in swaddling clothes – Auterac is 23, Thomas a year older – they could easily have gone the distance.

As it was, Leicester delayed their sharp-end changes until the game was won – and by happy coincidence, it was the Lions Test prop Dan Cole who did the winning for them. Cole had not scored a try for well over six years – his hot streak ended with a touchdown against Bristol in 2009 – so when he smuggled the ball over the line from a distance best measured in millimetres, there was considerable jubilation among his kith and kin in the Leicester family.

“I think the World Cup disappointment affected all the players from this club who were involved,” said Richard Cockerill, the Midlanders’ rugby director, “and Dan came back with a dent in his confidence. But this is a good place to come back to: it’s his home and he’s among friends.” Cockerill added that if everything went to plan, Cole would still be a going concern at international level when the next global tournament unfolds in Japan.

Cole played rather well, particularly in the loose: his turnover work marked him out as a player of considerable value, even when the scrum was making no sense at all. (At one point, the befuddled referee J P Doyle managed to penalise both front rows simultaneously, which was something of a first). But for the prop’s close-range intervention eight minutes from time, with Leicester only three points up at 14-11, the spoils could still have gone Bath’s way.

Ford and his charges must be spitting tacks. They had started brilliantly, Niko Matawalu and Matt Banahan creating a lovely opening try for the full-back Anthony Watson off a secure high-ball take from Horacio Agulla, and even though Auterac presented Leicester with a gift-wrapped response by throwing an interception pass to the Tongan wing Telusa Veainu, the visitors did enough against the elements in the first half to have taken plenty from the game.

But their mistakes hurt them: handling errors and kicking errors; errors in judgement and errors in execution. Leicester did not perform any better, as Cockerill openly admitted, but they worked out a way to get themselves over the line. The Tigers remain terribly difficult to beat on home soil, but Bath will lambast themselves for failing to prevail this time. It may be years before they have a better chance.

Leicester: Tries Veainu, Cole; Conversion Bell; Penalties Bell 3. Bath: Try Watson; Penalties Ford 2.

Leicester M Tait (capt, G Catchpole, 1; S Bai, 65); A Thompstone, P Betham, M Smith, T Veainu; T Bell, B Youngs (S Harrison, 48); M Ayerza (M Aguero, 78), T Youngs (G Bateman, 76), D Cole (F Balmain, 78), E Slater (G Kitchener, 64), M Fitzgerald, M Williams, B O’Connor, L McCaffrey (T Croft, 57).

Bath A Watson; S Rokoduguni, M Banahan, K Eastmond (R Priestland, 69), H Agulla (T Homer, 69); G Ford, N Matawalu (C Cook, 54); N Auterac (N Catt, 59), R Batty (T Dunn, 65), H Thomas (M Lahiff, 61), S Hooper (capt), T Ellis (D Denton, 65), M Garvey, F Louw, L Houston.

Referee J P Doyle (London).