Steve Borthwick says a lack of execution was the deciding factor in the 19-18 defeat to Bath Rugby on Friday night.

Speaking after the one-point defeat at The Recreation Ground, the Leicester Tigers Head Coach was high in praise for the effort of his reshuffled side but admitted a lack of conversion let them down.

“I was proud of the performance. I thought the effort was incredible from this group,” said Borthwick.

“For large parts of the game we were in control but we didn’t take the opportunities we created.

“Credit to Bath, they took the opportunity at the end and got the result.”

In the club’s first league outing for almost a month, a strong first-half showing saw them lead at the break but - according to Borthwick - it could have been a larger lead.

“There were a couple of errors at key moments in that first period, we were in control in the first-half but still didn’t convert the chances we created,” he said.

“Errors are part of the game, they are going to happen. I can’t fault the effort from the group tonight up against a good Bath side.

“We knew it was going to be tight tonight and it was.”

Tigers are missing almost 1,000 appearances of experience - sidelined through injury or away on international duty - but the Head Coach said the result was decided on the field and in no way, on paper, before kick-off.

“There are no excuses, we are not going to make any excuses,” Borthwick said.

“We are down on numbers, that’s the nature of this challenging period with internationals on and schedule changes, but tonight came down to execution and nothing more.

“When you create opportunities to score, you need to convert and we didn’t do that enough tonight.”