Leicester climb to 3rd in Premiership, Gloucester edge Bath

Owen Williams kicked Gloucester to a dramatic Premiership victory over local rivals Bath on Sunday as Leicester thumped Newcastle to climb to third in the table.

Wales international Williams converted Ed Slater's try five minutes into stoppage-time as Gloucester triumphed 22-21 and claimed a first away win of the season at Bath's Recreation Ground.

Semesa Rokoduguni looked to have done enough for Bath when he crossed four minutes from the end of normal time for his second touchdown but Gloucester were not to be denied.

"It was a nervy one," said Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann. "I watched Owen kicking in the warm-up and he took one from that specific side and missed it -- but he slotted the one that counted. He showed a lot of composure.

"I challenged the guys and said 'why can't we win away from home?'

"If you look at the games we lost at Harlequins, Sale and Leicester, we have played poorly. Today we stayed in the game, looked after the ball and went through a lot of phases."

Slater's try was awarded following repeated viewings from the television match official, before Williams's conversion sealed a first victory on the road for Gloucester since they beat La Rochelle in last season's European Challenge Cup semi-finals.

Fly-half Rhys Priestland added three penalties and a conversion for Bath after Gloucester scrum-half and captain Willi Heinz scored two tries to build the foundations for what ended up being only their second win from their past 11 Recreation Ground visits in the Premiership.

Williams chipped in with a penalty and two conversions as Bath, who have slipped to fourth in the table, struggled to build on an impressive European Champions Cup success against the Scarlets.

Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder could not conceal his disappointment, saying: "It was probably a nine out of 10 in terms of frustration. It was sub-standard from us.

"We found ourselves in a position where we should have shut the game out and we didn't. Credit to Gloucester, they deserved it, but from our side of it, that was just not good enough."

Three second-half penalties from George Ford and a late Jonny May try finally ended Newcastle's resistance as Leicester Tigers beat the Falcons 30-13 in front of a sell-out 10,100 crowd at Kingston Park.

Ford clocked up 15 points, converting all three of the Tigers tries by Telusa Veainu, Ben Youngs and May and also kicked three penalties after the Falcons had battled their way back into the game.

Head coach Matt O'Connor said he was pleased with the club's fifth consecutive Premiership win, especially after they lost the first two games of the season, but he is still looking for more.

"We had more than enough opportunities to score four, five, six more tries," he told the Leicester Mercury newspaper. "That is a disappointment -- you have to take those opportunities if you are going to be very good."

"We were good and we are pleased to get three consecutive wins on the road," he added. "That is a huge effort but we had enough opportunities in the first half to be further in front and in the second half we had chances we didn't take."