Leicester and ageless Mike Brown storm to bonus-point win over weakened Bath
Mike Brown made a strong case for a new contract at Leicester as the Bath head coach, Johann van Graan, saw his selection gamble backfire in the Midlands.
Van Graan sent a near-second string side to the Tigers and they were laid to waste by the hosts with the veteran Brown, playing on the wing, and the lock partnership of George Martin and Ollie Chessum to the fore.
The former England international Brown, now 38, is hopeful of earning a new deal with the club and did his cause no harm here with an explosive performance. He is an evergreen who displays no sign of wilting.
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Chessum, in his 50th game for Leicester, and Martin were partnered in the engine room for the first time at club level and took the Bath pack to the cleaners as Leicester got their playoff chase back on track.
They had the bonus point wrapped up before half-time and narrowed the gap between them and fourth place to seven points when defeat could have left them out of touch.
Bath and Van Graan had a chance to bring in the new year at the top of the table but they were never in contention as Leicester did pretty much as they pleased, and the visitors end 2023 in fourth spot.
Brown was at the centre of it with the Leicester head coach, Dan McKellar, revealing the club are close to him signing on the dotted line and extending his stay at Welford Road.
“I am doing all I can to keep him at the club, we will see where we get to over the next couple of days. We are not farewelling him,” said McKellar.
“You are not playing professionally at his age to the level he is, if you are not the ultimate pro. I talk about paid rugby players and professional rugby players and he is professional rugby, and that is why he is still playing now.”
Two yellow cards, for back rowers GJ van Velze and Jaco Coetzee, either side of half-time did not help the visitors’ cause as they were put to the sword by the Tigers.
Bath’s selection was flagged up on Friday but the absence of Finn Russell, Joe Cokanasiga, Ollie Lawrence, Ben Spencer, Beno Obano and Alfie Barbeary in front of a sell-out crowd was perplexing to the 25,849 fans who had bought tickets. But Van Graan refused to admit he had erred by sending an understrength team to the Midlands.
Handré Pollard tackles Max Ojomoh as Leicester dominate Bath. Photograph: Joe Toth/Shutterstock
“It doesn’t matter what team is on the pitch if you concede two yellow cards away to Tigers you are going to be under pressure,” he said. “I thought we created enough but we weren’t clinical enough on the evening. I have got absolutely no regrets, I back our group and we win together and we lose together. We came here to win but we weren’t good enough.
“Some of the players have played an incredible amount of rugby – I am not going to make a big issue of selection. It is not about keeping people happy it is about developing our squad. There is a plan behind everything we do, it is not as if we just rocked up on Monday and gelled a few guys together.”
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Bath have a game with lowly Gloucester next weekend before the European games with Racing 92 and Toulouse, and are well placed to progress in the Champions Cup after beating Ulster and Cardiff. This was a chance to maintain momentum in their impressive league campaign but they did not take it.
Bath got off the mark first when scrum-half Louis Schreuder intercepted Handré Pollard’s pass and sprinted home after three minutes but Leicester had put the game to bed by half-time.
Their driving line out bore fruit with the flanker, Matt Rogerson, and the prop, James Cronin, going over from the set-piece with their scores bookending a try for Brown.
Martin got the bonus-point score, only the third time Leicester have scored four tries this season, and the game was up for Bath before the half-time whistle. Bath only managed a penalty from Orlando Bailey just before half-time to tack on to Schreuder’s try.
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It was more of the same after the break with Tigers forcing a penalty try on 43 minutes to give McKellar the luxury of taking off the excellent openside flanker, Tommy Reffell, after 52 minutes.
Martin was another early withdrawal and Bath did manage late scores from replacement Louie Hennessey and Ewan Richards but the game had gone way before that. It had gone almost as soon as Bath announced their lineup.