Leicester Tigers 17-12 Bath, Aviva Premiership, December 1
Injured Allen ok after Tigers win
ESPN Staff
December 1, 2012
Leicester's Anthony Allen looks for an offload, Leicester v Bath, Aviva Premiership, Welford Road, Leicester, England, May 5, 2012
Leicester's Anthony Allen was stretchered off after being hit by Bath's Matt Banahan © Getty Images
Enlarge
Related Links
Players/Officials: Anthony Allen
Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership

Leicester centre Anthony Allen was "dazed but okay" after being carried off during their 17-12 Aviva Premiership win over great rivals Bath at Welford Road.

Allen, 26, twice capped by England, was left unconscious on the ground for several minutes after a high tackle from Bath's giant centre Matt Banahan, one of three players to be sent off by referee Tim Wigglesworth in five minutes of mayhem.

First to go was Bath flanker Francois Louw in the 60th minute for use of the elbow. Banahan followed after the tackle on Allen, as did Leicester flanker Brett Deacon for retaliation.

Bath also saw No 8 Simon Taylor and fly-half Stephen Donald sin-binned in the 50th and 67th minutes respectively, indiscipline which helped Leicester fight back from 12-6 down at the end of the third quarter to win 17-12.

Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: "Anthony is sat up in the changing room, he is dazed but he will be okay."

Bath head coach Toby Booth said the game was "one of the most surreal experiences" of his career. He added: "I am a bit shell-shocked. When you come to Welford Road you have to be extremely competitive and we spoke about that a lot this week.

"Self-control is part of a professional player's make-up. Some of the issues we saw out there were self-control issues, others were consistency issues. I am not going to stand here and say it should not have been (red card). I did not see Francois' incident, it was off camera.

"Allen ducked into a tackle from Banners and he has caught him high. We are bitterly disappointed because we thought we had an opportunity today."

Cockerill had some sympathy for all three players who were sent off. He said: "Banahan is a big man, he's not a dirty player. He has gone in and hit him high.

"The laws are a bit mad. If Louw has dropped an elbow on someone is it a red? Probably not. It might be a yellow, but that's the world we live in. Banahan hits a bloke and knocks him unconscious, but it looks a lot worse than it is. Brett Deacon retaliates and he is off.

"If you go back to the 1990s when this side was very aggressive we would have three blokes a side. I don't necessarily agree with how it's refereed but that's the way it is."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.