Amidst one of English rugby's greatest rivalries, the match involving the Tigers and Bath was as much about an emotion at the interval than any on-field action during the pitch.
The legendary Martin Johnson headed a phalanx of Tigers former players to pay tribute to Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody wore a Leicester jersey here, 15 years ago, prior to joining Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, Leicester were more or less close to their very best, whereas Bath were situated enduring a long drought without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath arrived as champions, the first time they've held that status since the 1990s.
An Passionate Welcome on Home Turf
The Tigers, riding a powerful emotional surge, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as underdogs in their own stadium, the large home crowd further emboldened by Moody's heartfelt admission at half-time that regardless of his residence, Welford Road will always be the home of his rugby heart.
In retrospect, the visiting side 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.
The Climax
The replacement fly-half, on for the impressive James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his debut start for the club, darted blind, before the Bath prop 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. Without a doubt, the home team, who climb a little higher in a congested league, can take great encouragement that a familiar frontal assault remains effective, regardless of the quality of the opponent.
Contrasting Game Plans
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, following a confusing opening period which saw them trail 17-7, adapted to starve them of possession. A succession of penalties against the away side put Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts throughout the game.
The Tigers' three touchdowns were carbon copies of each other, all scored from close range; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath scored the tries, before and after Cracknell's score for Tigers. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith powered over for tries just before and just after the break.
A Tense 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 score their fourth. Actually, their scoring opportunity arrived via an infrequent 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, initiated by the energetic 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.
