Bath 23 Leinster 35: Brian O'Driscoll produced an outstanding display to keep Leinster's Heineken Cup bid alive in a titanic match at Bath's Recreation Ground today.

The result means Bath have to go to Leicester in the knock-out stages and win if they are to have a chance of repeating their 1998 European triumph against Brive.  Leinster, on the other hand, face champions Toulouse in France.

With Bath already through to the quarter-finals, one bonus point would have secured the West Country side a home draw in the knock-out stages but Leinster needed every point they could muster to stay in the competition.

With an all-international back division and their desperation to win with a four-try bonus point, the Irish province had a win or bust, full throttle attitude to the game. Few, though, could have predicted the blistering opening 20 minutes in which the group leaders were ripped apart by the Brian O'Driscoll-inspired province.

Leinster went for broke in a bid to gain a top runners-up spot and thrashed Bath with three marvellous tries, created by their backs, in the opening quarter. It began when O'Driscoll attacked the home midfield of Salesi Finau and Tom Cheeseman in his own 22, spread the ball out to Denis Hickie on the wing before he drilled a cross-kick into the centre for opposite wing Shane Horgan to pick-up and cross unopposed.

Bath fly-half Olly Barkley reduced the arrears slightly with a 43-yard penalty soon after but the onslaught was far from over. A loose pass on the Leinster 10-metre line was brilliantly intercepted by Argentinian ace Contepomi and he ran 60 yards across field to score.

Contepomi added a second conversion to leave the home side reeling. Bath went even further behind as O'Driscoll and centre partner Gordon D'Arcy combined to storm down the middle.

Lions and Ireland captain O'Driscoll strolled past full-back Michael Stephenson and headed to the line but sent in England international tight-head prop Will Green for the third converted touchdown.

Such a frantic pace was bound to slow at some stage and Leinster were unable to get the vital fourth try they needed for a bonus point before half-time despite facing 14 men in the closing stages of the period when wing Andrew Higgins was sin-binned for killing the ball near his own line.

Amazingly, Bath found their feet and Barkley even managed to get his second penalty of the match. Leinster almost got that elusive bonus point touchdown immediately after the break when again O'Driscoll began a move with Hickie that saw the wing dash down the left before passing inside to Green and the prop shipping on to number eight Jamie Heaslip to go over.

However, Welsh referee Nigel Owens had already blown his whistle for a forward pass from the Ireland winger. When scrum-half Guy Easterby was caught offside after a bout of Bath pressure, Barkley landed his third penalty of the afternoon. But their hopes of winning the match were all but ended when Leinster finally got that fourth try and the bonus point again in tremendous style.

As the game was held up at a ruck on the left inside the Bath 22, Horgan was on the right wing screaming for the ball. His call was answered as Contepomi flung a long pass to O'Driscoll, he ran towards his team-mate and provided the pass that saw Horgan power home. Contepomi's touchline conversion put Leinster virtually out of sight as they entered the last quarter.

And the magnificent O'Driscoll deservedly got a try of his own as he ran down the left, combined with Jamie Heaslip to get in at the corner, while Contepomi continued his brilliant kicking with yet another conversion.

Bath suddenly hit back as replacement fly-half Chris Malone combined with Higgins to put Stephenson in for a converted try. Then, when the pack drove to the Leinster line, England prop Matt Stevens emerged from a pile of bodies with the ball. Malone's conversion meant that Bath needed just one more try for a losing bonus point and that home draw that would make life so much easier in the quarter-finals.

They hammered Leinster, keeping the ball alive as the seconds ticked away but they could not get the score and now go on the road.