Preview: Bath Rugby vs Leicester

One of English Rugby's great rivalries resumes in front of the TNT Sports cameras on Saturday, as Bath Rugby host Leicester Tigers at the Rec.

There is a spring in Bath's step, following successive wins that sees them top of the table after the first fortnight, while they will hope to pile more misery on their great rivals - who have struggled so far.

Tigers are 11th and have lost both of their first two matches but have the better head-to-head record in this fixture, winning 119 of their 206 previous clashes.

Bath are stronger at the Rec, however, emerging victorious in 54 of their 100 matches.

Bath Rugby XV: 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Thomas du Toit, 4 Josh McNally, 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Fergus Lee-Warner, 7 Miles Reid, 8 Alfie Barbeary, 9 Ben Spencer ©, 10 Finn Russell, 11 Will Muir, 12 Cameron Redpath, 13 Max Ojomoh, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 15 Matt Gallagher

Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Ewan Richards, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Chris Cloete

Leicester Tigers: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Josh Bassett, 13 Guy Porter, 12 Dan Kelly, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Jamie Shillcock, 9 Tom Whiteley, 1 James Cronin, 2 Charlie Clare, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Cameron Henderson, 5 Harry Wells, 6 Hanro Liebenberg (c), 7 Tommy Reffell, 8 Matt Rogerson

Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Sam Carter, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Joe Powell, 22 Charlie Atkinson, 23 Phil Cokanasiga

Bath Rugby

• Bath have scored an average of five tries per 80 minutes so far this season – second only to the Exeter Chiefs. However, they have the poorest rate of goalkicking success in the league (36.4%).
• Alfie Barbeary has made more carries (15), more dominant carries (six), more post-contact metres (26), and beaten more defenders (six) than any other Bath player.
• Only Saracens have made fewer carries than Bath (179). However, Bath have scored the second-most points in the opening two rounds (59).
• Bath have made the second-fewest kick in play metres (983). They have averaged a league-low 26 kicking metres per kick in play.

Leicester Tigers

• Olly Cracknell and Cameron Henderson completed the most tackles in Round 2: 25 and 24 respectively.
• Leicester Tigers have won more scrum penalties than any other team this season (eight) and are the only team in the league yet to lose a lineout.
• Hanro Leibenberg has competed in more attacking lineouts than any other player this 
  • season (20), winning them all with a clean catch. He has also won a league-high three lineout steals.
  • The Tigers have conceded more turnovers than any other team so far this season (33), an average of 7.8 carries per turnover.