Amidst one of English rugby's most storied rivalries, the fixture between Leicester and the visitors was heavily influenced by an emotion during half-time as the rugby on play.
The legendary Martin Johnson headed a phalanx comprising Tigers old boys in honour of the great Lewis Moody, after he announced that he has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
The last time Moody last pulled on a Leicester jersey here, a decade and a half past, before moving to their rivals Bath for his final two seasons in a distinguished playing career, the home side were more or less close to the peak of their powers, while Bath were situated in the middle of a lengthy period without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. The Tigers’ great rivals came into the match as title holders, the first time they've held that status since the 1990s.
A Truly Passionate Reception at Welford Road
The Tigers, riding a powerful emotional surge, served up a classic, robust reception, embracing the role of the unfancied team on their own pitch, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody's heartfelt admission at half-time that regardless of his residence, Welford Road remains the home of his rugby heart.
Looking back, the visiting side were always up against it. True to form, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, Leicester managed to coax one last penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
The Decisive Moment
The replacement fly-half, on for the impressive James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, darted blind, before the Bath prop caught him high, for which offence he saw yellow. With the last kick, Searle landed the penalty from a difficult angle to steal the win.
It felt like being back in the days to Lewis Moody's prime. Without a doubt, 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 they face.
Contrasting Styles
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, following a confusing opening period which saw them trail 17-7, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties against Bath kept Bath under constant pressure, their forwards comprehensively bested in the scrums and lineouts throughout the game.
Leicester’s three tries were remarkably similar, all scored from close range; Bath’s three were studies in poetry. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath scored the tries, before and after Cracknell's score for Leicester. Then, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith forced their way over for tries just before and just after the break.
A Nail-Biting Conclusion
Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for most of the second half. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath secured sufficient possession to grab a fourth try. In fact, their breakthrough arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. Finn Russell, having missed two of his three earlier attempts, landed the kick with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
This merely galvanized Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins down the left. After earning the penalty that put Bath ahead where he is most comfortable, poor Du Toit conceded where he is not. There could be only one result.
