Bottom side Leeds ruined Bath coach John Connolly's farewell party with an
unexpected victory at the Recreation Ground.
The Tykes proved they have the Indian sign on the west country side, having
beaten them in the Powergen Cup final in May, with a precious victory to follow
up their first Guinness Premiership win of the season against Northampton last
weekend.
It was a sad end to Connolly's two-and-a-half years at the Rec but the
performance summed up Bath's persistent failure to convert territory and
possession into points after Andre Snyman snatched the only try of the game just
before half-time.
Leeds then mounted a courageous defensive effort right up to the 12th minute
of injury time.
Bath may be top of their Heineken Cup pool but their progress in the
Premiership has been anything but convincing, leaving them languishing in ninth
place.
At least they were able to recall Danny Grewcock, excused England duty against
Samoa, but desperately needed to shore up the Bath set-piece.
Leeds named an unchanged side with another England lock, Tom Palmer, kept on
the bench.
Bath's forwards ripped into their opponents from the kick-off and when Leeds
were penalised at a ruck after seven phases of play, fly-half Chris Malone
kicked the goal from short range.
Leeds saw hardly anything of the ball in the first quarter and Malone made it
6-0 with an angled penalty from 45 metres on 16 minutes.
When the visitors did mount an attack, centre Chris Jones spilled the ball,
leaving fly-half Gordon Ross to tidy up. But it was one-way traffic at this
stage and, when Leeds pulled down a driving maul, Malone landed his third
penalty after 24 minutes.
Ross finally put his side on the scoreboard on the half-hour, landing a
penalty from 45 metres after the Bath front row chanced their arm at a scrum.
Although Malone restored the nine-point lead with another penalty five minutes
later, Leeds were suddenly a different outfit and shocked the home side with a
39th-minute try.
There seemed no danger when two looping passes found Snyman on the right wing
but he brushed past Michael Stephenson and stepped out of Zak Feaunati's tackle
to score, with Ross adding a conversion.
The Scottish fly-half then rubbed salt into the wound by adding a penalty in
injury time to send his time in at the break with an improbable 13-12 lead.
In the second half the home side's blunderbuss tactics continued to founder in
the face of determined Leeds tackling, reawakening memories of their epic 20-12
victory at Twickenham.
Malone's boot let him down for the first time as he hooked a penalty on the
hour but Ross made no mistake when offered a chance from 40 metres in the 64th
minute and it took a last-ditch tackle by prop David Barnes on Ross to snuff out
a dangerous attack down the right.
Bath huffed and puffed throughout an extended injury time but did not have the
guile to break down the Leeds defence.
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