Leicester 27 Bath 11

The LV Cup match between Leicester and Bath at Welford Road on Friday Jan 29 2010.

Leicester combined a powerful scrum and the emerging talent of Billy Twelvetrees to bowl over Bath on Friday night in an Anglo-Welsh Cup pool match at Welford Road.

A second-half penalty try, which was engineered via a series of scrums, came in between two tries by Twelvetrees, the distinctive blond-haired centre who looked set for a breakthrough season until an ankle injury intervened in the autumn.

Leicester grabbed a fourth try in the final minute from Alesana Tuilagi to gain a bonus point as well. Twelvetrees had struck first a minute before half-time when he latched on to Aaron Mauger's chip ahead and then in the 75th minute when he burst clear from a backline move off a scrum.

His tries marked a return to Leicester action for the for the first time since the Heineken Cup games in the October when his flare helped conjure a draw against the Ospreys.

Twelvetrees has recuperated from an ankle injury at Nottingham in the Championship and he looks set for more opportunities at Leicester next season following the decision of Mauger to return to New Zealand.

Both teams fielded vastly changed line ups from those which had fought out last weekend's final Heineken Cup games.

Bath were far sharper in the first half and must have kicked themselves at half-time that they had not built a decent lead. They had missed out on two excellent opportunities for tries and Ryan Davis had also botched an easy penalty goal attempt.

Davis had given Bath the lead in the 17th minute by successfully kicking a penalty chance after Leicester had collapsed a maul.

Bath had earlier failed to take the two chances for tries. Ex-Leicester lock Peter Short had set up the first opening by charging down Mauger's hurried clearance kick only for Alesana Tuilagi to clear the danger.

That was followed immediately by Sam Vesty losing the ball in a tackle to trigger a counter attack that ended in No 8 Ben Skirving getting to within a metre of the home line.

Leicester played their best rugby in the final five minutes of the half. Vesty levelled through a penalty, following a Bath offside in midfield, to be followed by Twelvetrees finishing off after Lucas Amorosino and Mauger had attacked down the right.

Davis kicked his second penalty a minute into a second half that Leicester started to dominate up front by forcing a series of scrums following a high tackle by Nicky Little on Amorosino.

The pressure eventually brought reward when referee David Rose awarded a penalty try at the fourth set piece when the Bath front row were penalised for standing up against opponents including Julian White, a prospective England prop in the Six Nations if he can prove his fitness after a hamstring injury.

The match finished in a burst of points. Twelvetrees raced clear for his second try to be followed by Bath substitute Jonny Faamatuainu grabbing a consolation score for Bath only for Tuilagi to finish off by intercepting on halfway to collect Leicester's fourth try.

Match details

Leicester: L Amorosino; A Tuilagi, B Twelvetrees, A Mauger (capt), M Smith (J Murphy 67); S Vesty, H Ellis (J Grindal 58); B Stankovich, J Duffey (T Youngs 58), J White, C Green, B Kay, B Pienaar, B Woods, B Deacon.
Try: Twelvetrees (2), penalty try, Tuilagi. Conversions: Vesty (2). Penalty goal: Vesty.
Bath: J Cuthbert; J Maddock (capt), T Cheeseman, R Davis, R Crane; N Little, S Bemand; N Catt (D Barnes 40), P Dixon (M Lilley 76), D Bell (A Jarvis 67), P Short (A Beattie 62), S Hobson (G Mercer 71), D Browne (J Faamatuainu 62), J Ovens, B Skirving.
Try: Faammatuainu. Penalty goal: Davis (2).
Referee: D Rose (Warwicks). Att: 19,772.