Against the backdrop of one of English rugby's most storied rivalries, this fixture involving Leicester and the visitors was as much about the emotion at the interval than the rugby during the pitch.
Martin Johnson led a contingent of Leicester old boys to pay tribute to the great Lewis Moody, after he announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey here, a decade and a half past, prior to joining their rivals Bath for the last two years in a distinguished playing career, Leicester were more or less still at their very best, while their opponents found themselves enduring a lengthy period without the title. Times have changed since. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, the first time they have called themselves that in over two decades.
An Passionate Welcome at Welford Road
Leicester, on a wave of emotion, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as the unfancied team in their own stadium, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession during the break that, no matter where he may live, Welford Road remains his rugby home.
Looking back, Bath were always up against it. Sure enough, during a final, desperate attack deep in Bath territory, Leicester managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
The Climax
The replacement fly-half, on for the excellent James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his debut start for the club, darted blind, and Thomas du Toit made a high tackle, an infringement for which he received a yellow card. With the last kick, Searle slotted the penalty kick from a difficult angle to snatch a dramatic victory.
We might as well have been transported back to Lewis Moody's prime. Certainly, the home team, who climb a little higher in a congested league, can take great encouragement that their traditional, direct approach remains effective, regardless of the quality they face.
A Tale of Two Game Plans
The visitors were a different class when in possession. So Leicester, following a confusing opening period which saw them trail 17-7, adapted to starve them of possession. A deluge of penalties conceded by Bath put Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed at the set piece throughout the game.
Leicester’s three tries were remarkably similar, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath scored the tries, either side of Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Then, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith forced their way over to score just before and just after the break.
The Nail-Biting Finish
Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for most of the second half. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath won enough ball to score their fourth. Actually, their breakthrough arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. Finn Russell, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
That only inspired Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins on the left wing. Having won the penalty that earned Bath the lead in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit conceded where he is not. There could be only one result.
