Amidst one of English rugby's most storied rivalries, the fixture involving Leicester and the visitors proved to be heavily influenced by the emotion at the interval as the rugby on the pitch.
The legendary Martin Johnson led a contingent of Tigers former players in honour of Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey here, a decade and a half past, prior to joining their rivals Bath for his final two seasons in a distinguished playing career, the home side were more or less still at the peak of their powers, whereas their opponents found themselves enduring a lengthy period devoid of championship success. Times have changed since. Bath came into the match as title holders, marking the first occasion they've held that status in over two decades.
A Truly Passionate Welcome at Welford Road
Leicester, on a wave of emotion, offered them a classic, robust reception, relishing their status as the unfancied team on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders greatly inspired by Moody’s confession during the break that regardless of his residence, this famous ground will always be his rugby home.
In retrospect, Bath were always up against it. Sure enough, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, the Tigers managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
The Climax
Billy Searle, on for the excellent James O'Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, darted blind, and the Bath prop made a high tackle, an infringement for which he saw yellow. From the final play, Searle slotted the penalty kick on an 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 the mid-table bun fight, can take great encouragement that a familiar frontal assault remains effective, no matter the pedigree they face.
Contrasting Game Plans
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. So Leicester, following a confusing opening period which saw them trail 17-7, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties conceded by Bath kept Bath under constant pressure, their pack thoroughly outplayed at the set piece for most of the match.
Leicester’s three tries 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, before and after Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Subsequently, on the back of those penalties, Reffell and Smith forced their way over for tries just before and just after the break.
The Nail-Biting Finish
Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for most of the second half. It appeared inevitable before Bath secured sufficient possession to grab a fourth try. In fact, their scoring opportunity came with a rare penalty at the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, landed the kick with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
That only inspired Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, initiated by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins down the left. Having won the penalty that earned Bath the lead where he is most comfortable, the unfortunate prop conceded where he is not. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
