Amidst a classic English rugby's greatest rivalries, the fixture between the Tigers and Bath proved to be heavily influenced by the emotional tribute at the interval as the rugby during the pitch.
Martin Johnson headed a contingent of Tigers old boys in honour of Lewis Moody, who has revealed his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody last pulled on a Leicester shirt at Welford Road, 15 years ago, prior to joining Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, the home side remained close to the peak of their powers, while their opponents were situated in the middle of a long drought without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath came into the match as title holders, marking the first occasion they've held that status since the 1990s.
An Passionate Reception on Home Turf
Leicester, riding a powerful emotional surge, served up an old-fashioned welcome, embracing the role of underdogs 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 his rugby home.
Looking back, the visiting side were always up against it. True to form, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, the Tigers managed to coax a crucial penalty out of the Bath defence.
The Climax
The replacement fly-half, on for the impressive James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his first start for Leicester, took a quick tap, and Thomas du Toit caught him high, an infringement for which he received a yellow card. From the final play, Searle slotted the penalty kick from a difficult angle to steal the win.
It felt like being back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, the home team, who climb a little higher in a congested league, will be heartened that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, no matter the pedigree they face.
Contrasting Styles
The visitors were sublime when in possession. So Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour in which they fell 17-7 behind, adapted to starve them of possession. A deluge of penalties conceded by the away side put Bath on the back foot, their forwards thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match.
Leicester’s three tries were carbon copies of each other, all scored from close range; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, before and after Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith forced their way over for tries either side of half-time.
The Tense Finish
Those scores gave Leicester the lead, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath secured sufficient possession to score their fourth. In fact, their scoring opportunity came with a rare penalty at the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, having missed two of his three earlier attempts, successfully converted the penalty with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
This merely galvanized Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, set up by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins on the left wing. Having won the penalty that earned Bath the lead where he is most comfortable, the unfortunate prop conceded where he is not. There could be only one result.
