Against the backdrop of one of English rugby's most storied rivalries, this match between the Tigers versus Bath was as much about an emotion at half-time as any rugby on the pitch.
The legendary Martin Johnson headed a contingent of Tigers former players to pay tribute to the great Lewis Moody, after he announced his diagnosis with MND.
When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' shirt here, a decade and a half past, before moving to Bath for the last two years of a storied career, the home side were more or less still at the peak of their powers, while their opponents were situated in the middle of a long drought devoid of championship success. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, the first time they've held that status in over two decades.
An Emotional 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 further emboldened by Moody’s confession at half-time that regardless of his residence, Welford Road will always be his rugby home.
Looking back, Bath did not stand a chance. Sure enough, in a last-minute assault on the Bath line, the Tigers managed to coax 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, and Thomas du Toit made a high tackle, 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 to Lewis Moody's prime. Certainly, the home team, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, regardless of the quality of the opponent.
A Tale of Two Styles
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour in which they fell 17-7 behind, adapted to starve them of possession. A succession of penalties against Bath put Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed at the set piece throughout the game.
The Tigers' three touchdowns were carbon copies of each other, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath scored the tries, either side of Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith powered over to score just before and just after the break.
The Nail-Biting Conclusion
That earned Tigers the lead, an advantage they maintained for most of the second half. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath secured sufficient possession to score their fourth. Actually, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty in the scrum, their South Africans by then on. Finn Russell, having missed two of his three earlier attempts, successfully converted the penalty with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
That only inspired 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 in a situation he relishes, the unfortunate prop gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
