‘Tigers should be proud but Bath deserve to be champions’published at 17:39 British Summer Time
17:39 BST
FT: Bath 23-21 Leicester
Tom Varndell
Former England and Leicester wing on BBC Radio Leicester
It’s gutting for the Leicester players because you get to the final game where it’s all there, you’ve worked so hard all season and in some ways you wished you’d lost by 40 points because two points is an absolute killer because then you start to look at those individual moments.
But these guys can be so proud of the whole season and in a couple of weeks when they are sitting on the beach they’ll look back and see the strides that they have made this season but at the moment it’s going to hurt.
I’m gutted for them because if they just played with a little bit more belief in the 60 minutes before that last 20 minutes they could have won it.
They have enough talent in this team, they had enough attacking threats to really, really challenge this Bath side and I think that they gave Bath too much respect.
I didn’t think they learned their lessons when they played Bath at the Rec – kicking the ball away, hold on to the ball, we saw when they hold on to the ball they built the phases, even if they are not going forward it doesn’t matter, you will break down this Bath defence.
Leicester should be proud of that performance today. Bath do deserve to be champions, they’ve had a great season, it’s been a journey for them as well. They have reached the top of the mountain and have been brilliant this season.