Amidst one of English rugby's greatest contests, this fixture between Leicester and the visitors proved to be as much about an emotion at half-time than any rugby on the pitch.
The legendary Martin Johnson led a phalanx of Leicester old boys to pay tribute to the great Lewis Moody, who has revealed his diagnosis with MND.
When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey at Welford Road, a decade and a half past, prior to joining Bath for the last two years of a storied career, Leicester were more or less still at the peak of their powers, while Bath were situated in the middle of a long drought without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath came into the match as title holders, the first time they have called themselves that since the 1990s.
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 in their own stadium, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, this famous ground remains his rugby home.
In retrospect, Bath were always up against it. True to form, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, the Tigers managed to coax a crucial penalty out of the Bath defence.
The Climax
The replacement fly-half, who replaced the impressive James O'Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, took a quick tap, before Thomas du Toit caught him high, an infringement for which he saw yellow. From the final play, Searle landed the penalty from a difficult angle to steal the win.
We might as well have been back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, the home team, who moved up the table in a congested league, can take great encouragement that a familiar frontal assault can still yield results, regardless of the quality of the opponent.
Contrasting Game Plans
Bath were sublime with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, following a confusing opening period in which they fell 17-7 behind, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties conceded by the away side kept Bath on the back foot, their pack thoroughly outplayed at the set piece throughout the game.
Leicester’s three tries were carbon copies of each other, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath’s three were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, either side of Ollie Cracknell’s try for Tigers. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith forced their way over to score just before and just after the break.
A Nail-Biting Finish
Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath won enough ball to grab a fourth try. Actually, their scoring opportunity arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. Finn Russell, after missing two earlier kicks, landed the kick with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
This merely galvanized Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, initiated by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins down the left. Having won the penalty that put Bath ahead in a situation he relishes, the unfortunate prop gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
