Director of rugby Richard Cockerill acknowledged that his team had ridden their luck at times, especially in the face of a bright start by their hosts, but some clinical finishing maintained top spot in the Aviva Premiership table with just four rounds remaining.
“We started really poorly and we were probably lucky to get away with not conceding a try or two early on,” said Cockerill.
“Our defence was poor at that stage, but our attitude was great and the guys stuck at it. We got better on their ball and we were still defending hard at the end.
“We put ourselves under pressure at times but we were resilient and it was a case of sticking to what we practise and coming through that tough period.
“Bath are very good on the front foot so we had to make sure we had the ball as often as we could and we had to make them work hard.
“We’ll take the five tries and the five points but there is a bit to work on.”
A breakaway score from Anthony Allen, followed by a try in each half for both Toby Flood and Tom Croft, gave Tigers their biggest win in 96 years of visiting The Rec and a first league win at Bath since March 2006.
Flood’s first touchdown, which established a 22-3 lead just before half-time, was the team’s 50th of the Premiership season and Tigers have now run in a dozen more than any of their rivals.
“We have got great threats across the board, there is some real quality there,” said Cockerill.
“But we’ll keep our feet on the ground, we’ll keep working on it and we hope to keep improving.”
Cockerill also reported good progress on injured trio Louis Deacon, Martin Castrogiovanni and George Skivington who could all be available for next weekend’s Aviva Premiership trip to Harlequins.
