Bath crumble to Tiger's Goode goal

A contest as raw as the weather, which they led 16-3 after half an hour, ended with Bath losing the match as well as centre Mike Tindall, his Six Nations future hinging on a specialist examination of his left elbow.

Leicester could even cope with the shock of their renowned defensive system being ripped to shreds by Gareth Cooper's tap penalty, Dan Lyle's break and Iain Balshaw's scorching finish.

Once Johnson's octagon clamped their tentacles round the game, they won it in the manner of real champions.

They may have scraped home by one point but do not be fooled by the score. Their second-half control was so complete that had any of four late, increasingly frantic Bath kicks gone over, a home win would have represented a miscarriage of justice.

Mike Catt missed narrowly with two drop goal attempts, Matt Perry hooked a penalty wide from 38 yards and Jon Preston's final place-kick, from 50 yards, ran out of steam after Johnson, of all people, had been caught off-side. As an exercise in coming from behind, Leicester are unlikely to produce anything as good all season.

Their second half domination exposed serious flaws in Bath's game, mainly their discipline. Mark Regan, troubled enough by an inability to find his jumpers at three critical lines- out, had spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin before inflicting a blow infinitely more damaging than the one he landed in retaliation on his opposite number, Dorian West.

Caught tugging at Neil Back's jersey, Regan could only watch in horror as the Tigers made him suffer in the time-honoured Leicester way - Tim Stimpson nailing the penalty towards the corner, Ben Kay winning the line-out and Back emerging from the bottom of the maul to claim the try.

Goode's big hoof 15 minutes from time eventually did the trick, a triumph for Leicester's ability to see the bigger picture and turn potential calamity into a thrilling counter-attack after Stimpson had been trapped in his own 25.

'When he was lining it up we were on the touchline wondering whether it was the right option,' said manager Dean Richards. 'When it sailed over, we knew it was. But we never count on winning the championship until it's in the bag.'

International referee Chris White, put in charge after the nasty first encounter at Welford Road 10 days earlier, allowed the gratuitous stamping of Oliver Smith to go unpunished even if the damage was enough to put Leicester's teenage centre out of the match.

Bath, as Newcastle had, wound up with head coach Jon Callard lambasting referees for allowing Leicester to get away with tricks every team tries.

Like everything else, the Tigers simply do it better than the rest.