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 lair and they were laid to waste by the hosts with the veteran Brown, playing on the wing, and the lock pairing of George Martin and Ollie Chessum to the fore. Brown, now 38, is eyeing a new deal with the club and did his cause no harm with an explosive display that showed he is an evergreen who shows no sign of wilting.

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 to fourth place to seven points when defeat here 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. Two yellow cards, for back-rowers GJ van Velze and Jaco Coetzee, either side of half-time did not help the cause of the visitors as they were put to the sword.

The visitors’ 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 sellout crowd in the Midlands was perplexing to the 25,849 fans who had bought tickets.

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 so far but they did not take it.

Leicester were missing Ben Youngs and Anthony Watson through injury and rotated slightly. But after last weekend’s shocker at Exeter they found their teeth again after having a five-match winning run brought to a halt in Devon.

Bath were off the mark first when the 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 lineout bore fruit with Matt Rogerson and James Cronin going over from the set piece with their scores bookending a try for the energetic 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 had only managed a three-pointer from Orlando Bailey just before the interval to tack on to Schreuder’s try.

It was more of the same after the break with Tigers forcing a penalty try on 43 minutes to give the head coach, Dan McKellar, the luxury of taking off the excellent Tommy Reffell after 52 minutes. Martin was another early withdrawal and Bath did manage late scores from the replacements Louie Hennessey and Ewan Richards but the game had gone way before that. It had gone almost as soon as Bath announced their lineup.