Against the backdrop of one of English rugby's greatest contests, this fixture between Leicester versus the visitors was as much about the emotion during half-time than any rugby on play.
Martin Johnson led a contingent comprising Tigers former players to pay tribute to the great Lewis Moody, who has announced that he has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
When Moody wore the Tigers' jersey here, a decade and a half past, prior to joining Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, the home side were more or less close to the peak of their powers, while Bath were situated in the middle of a long drought devoid of championship success. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they've held that status since the 1990s.
An Passionate Reception on Home Turf
Leicester, riding a powerful emotional surge, offered them a classic, robust reception, relishing their status as underdogs in their own stadium, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession during the break that regardless of his residence, Welford Road will always be the home of his rugby heart.
In retrospect, Bath were always up against it. True to form, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, Leicester won one last penalty out of the Bath defence.
A Dramatic Climax
The replacement fly-half, on for the impressive James O'Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for the club, darted blind, and Thomas du Toit caught him high, an infringement for which he saw yellow. With the last kick, Searle slotted the penalty kick on an angle to steal the win.
It felt like being transported back to Lewis Moody's prime. Without a doubt, the home team, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, can take great encouragement that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, regardless of the quality of the opponent.
Contrasting Styles
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. So Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour which saw them trail 17-7, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties conceded by the away side kept Bath on the back foot, their forwards thoroughly outplayed at the set piece throughout the game.
The Tigers' three touchdowns were remarkably similar, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath's three tries were works of art. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath scored the tries, either side of Ollie Cracknell’s try for Tigers. Subsequently, on the back of those penalties, Reffell and Smith powered over to score either side of half-time.
A Nail-Biting Conclusion
Those scores gave Leicester the lead, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It appeared inevitable before Bath secured sufficient possession to grab a fourth try. In fact, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. Finn Russell, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty inside the final ten minutes.
This merely galvanized Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins down the left. After earning the penalty that earned Bath the lead in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
