Against the backdrop of a classic English rugby's greatest rivalries, the match between the Tigers and Bath was as much about an emotion during the interval as any on-field action during play.
Martin Johnson headed a phalanx of Leicester former players in honour of Lewis Moody, who has revealed that he has been diagnosed with MND.
The last time Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey here, a decade and a half past, before moving to their rivals Bath for the last two years of a storied career, the home side remained still at their very best, whereas Bath found themselves enduring a lengthy period without the title. Times have changed since. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, the first time they have called themselves that since the 1990s.
An Passionate Welcome on Home Turf
Leicester, on a wave of emotion, offered them a classic, robust reception, embracing the role of the unfancied team in their own stadium, the 18,000 Midlanders greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, this famous ground remains the home of his rugby heart.
Looking back, the visiting side did not stand a chance. True to form, in a last-minute assault on the Bath line, Leicester managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
The Decisive Moment
The replacement fly-half, who replaced the excellent James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for the club, darted blind, before the Bath prop made a high tackle, an infringement for which he received a yellow card. With the last kick, Searle landed the penalty on an angle to snatch a dramatic victory.
We might as well have been transported back of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, the home team, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that a familiar frontal assault remains effective, regardless of the quality they face.
A Tale of Two Game Plans
The visitors were a different class when in possession. So 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 thoroughly outplayed at the set piece for most of the match.
Leicester’s three tries were carbon copies of each other, all scored from close range; Bath’s three were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, before and after Cracknell's score for Tigers. Then, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith powered over for tries just before and just after the break.
The Nail-Biting Conclusion
Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, which they held for the majority of the second period. It appeared inevitable before Bath secured sufficient possession to score their fourth. Actually, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty at the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, having missed two of his three earlier attempts, landed the kick inside the final ten minutes.
This merely galvanized Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins on the left wing. After earning the penalty that put Bath ahead in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
