Amidst a classic English rugby's most storied rivalries, the fixture involving Leicester versus the visitors proved to be as much about the emotion at half-time than the on-field action during the pitch.
Martin Johnson led a phalanx comprising Leicester old boys in honour of Lewis Moody, after he announced that he has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
The last time Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey at Welford Road, a decade and a half past, before moving to Bath for the last two years in a distinguished playing career, the home side were more or less still at their very best, while Bath were situated enduring a long drought devoid of championship success. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they have called themselves that in over two decades.
A Truly Emotional Welcome on Home Turf
Leicester, on a wave of emotion, served up an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as the unfancied team on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders further emboldened by Moody’s confession during the break that, no matter where he may live, Welford Road remains his rugby home.
In retrospect, the visiting side were always up against it. Sure enough, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, Leicester won a crucial penalty out of the Bath defence.
The Climax
Billy Searle, who replaced the impressive James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, darted blind, and Thomas du Toit caught him high, for which offence he saw yellow. With the last kick, Searle landed the penalty on an angle to snatch a dramatic victory.
We might as well have been transported back to Lewis Moody's prime. Certainly, Leicester, who climb a little higher in a congested league, will be heartened that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, regardless of the quality they face.
A Tale of Two Game Plans
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, following a confusing opening period in which they fell 17-7 behind, adapted to starve them of possession. A deluge of penalties against the away side put Bath under constant pressure, their pack thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match.
The Tigers' three touchdowns 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 Tigers. Then, capitalizing on the penalty count, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith powered over for tries either side of half-time.
The Tense Finish
Those scores gave Leicester the lead, an advantage they maintained for most of the second half. It appeared inevitable before Bath secured sufficient possession to grab a fourth try. Actually, their breakthrough arrived via an infrequent penalty at the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty inside the final ten minutes.
This merely galvanized Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, set up by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins down the left. After earning the penalty that put Bath ahead in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit conceded where he is not. There could be only one result.
