LONDON: A late try by England prop Dan Cole secured victory as Leicester maintained their strong home record against Bath with a 21-11 win in the English Premiership on Sunday.
Cole went over from a driving line-out in the 74th minute, with the TMO confirming the score to keep Bath without a win at Welford Road in the English top flight since 2003.
Leicester were second-best for long spells of the match on a wet and windy afternoon that made handling difficult, but outscored the visitors two tries to one courtesy of Cole and Tongan Telusa Veainu.
"I don't think he realises he scored it," Leicester rugby director Richard Cockerill said of Cole's try.
"We dropped the ball, they scraped it back and Coley decided to put his hand on it.
"It was a pivotal point in the match. Coley is a great player. There were some marginal decisions that went against us, but he stuck at it and had a great game."
Leicester climbed to third place in the table, six points below early-season pace-setters Saracens.
Bath, who scored through England wing Anthony Watson in the eighth minute, finished the weekend in eighth place.
Both sides saw players yellow-carded in the second half -- lock Ed Slater for Leicester and flanker David Denton for Bath.
Bath rugby director Mike Ford felt that his side should have kicked a late penalty, which would have given them a losing bonus point, rather than going for a try.
"We will analyse it on Monday, but the call was to go for goal," Ford said.
"We are better than we showed today. I was disappointed to go in at half-time losing.
"We got back to 11-11 and had some great possession, position and opportunities to take the game by the scruff of the neck. We never took them."
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