Amidst a classic English rugby's most storied rivalries, the match involving the Tigers versus the visitors was heavily influenced by the emotion during the interval than any rugby on the pitch.
Martin Johnson headed a contingent of Leicester former players in honour of Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody wore the Tigers' shirt here, a decade and a half past, before moving to their rivals Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, the home side were more or less still at the peak of their powers, whereas Bath were situated enduring a long drought devoid of championship success. Times have changed since. Bath arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they have called themselves that in over two decades.
A Truly Emotional Welcome on Home Turf
The Tigers, riding a powerful emotional surge, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, embracing the role of underdogs in their own stadium, the 18,000 Midlanders greatly inspired by Moody’s confession during the break that regardless of his residence, this famous ground remains the home of his rugby heart.
In retrospect, the visiting side did not stand a chance. True to form, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, the Tigers won a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
A Dramatic Decisive Moment
Billy Searle, who replaced the excellent James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his first start for the club, took a quick tap, and Thomas du Toit made a high tackle, for which offence he saw yellow. With the last kick, 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, Leicester, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, can take great encouragement 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. So Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour in which they fell 17-7 behind, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties against the away side kept Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match.
The Tigers' three touchdowns were carbon copies of each other, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath’s three were studies in poetry. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath were the finishers, before and after Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith forced their way over to score either side of half-time.
A Tense Finish
Those scores gave Leicester 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 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, set up by the energetic Hassell-Collins down the left. After earning the penalty that earned Bath the lead in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit conceded where he is not. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
