Amidst a classic English rugby's most storied rivalries, this fixture between Leicester and the visitors proved to be as much about an emotion at half-time as any rugby during the pitch.
Martin Johnson led a phalanx comprising Tigers old boys to pay tribute to Lewis Moody, after he announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody wore a Leicester jersey here, a decade and a half past, before moving to Bath for his final two seasons in a distinguished playing career, Leicester remained still at their very best, while their opponents found themselves enduring a lengthy period devoid of championship success. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath came into the match as title holders, the first time they have called themselves that in over two decades.
A Truly Passionate Welcome at Welford Road
Leicester, riding a powerful emotional surge, served up an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as the unfancied team on their own pitch, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, this famous ground remains the home of his rugby heart.
In retrospect, the visiting side were always up against it. Sure enough, during a final, desperate attack deep in Bath territory, Leicester won one last penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
The Climax
The replacement fly-half, who replaced the excellent James O’Connor, the seasoned Australian making his first start for the club, darted blind, and the Bath prop made a high tackle, for which offence he saw yellow. From the final play, Searle landed the penalty on an angle to snatch a dramatic victory.
We might as well have been back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, Leicester, who moved up the table in a congested league, can take great encouragement that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, no matter the pedigree they face.
Contrasting Styles
Bath were sublime with ball in hand. So Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour which saw them trail 17-7, adapted to starve them of possession. A deluge of penalties conceded by the away side put Bath on the back foot, their forwards comprehensively bested in the scrums and lineouts 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. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath scored the tries, before and after Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Then, on the back of those penalties, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith powered over for tries just before and just after the break.
The Tense Conclusion
Those scores gave Leicester the lead, which they held for most of the second half. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath won enough ball to score their fourth. Actually, their scoring opportunity arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, their South Africans by then on. Finn Russell, after missing two earlier kicks, landed the kick inside the final ten minutes.
This merely galvanized Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the energetic Hassell-Collins on the left wing. Having won the penalty that earned Bath the lead where he is most comfortable, poor Du Toit gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. There could be only one result.
