Against the backdrop of one of rugby union's greatest contests, the fixture involving the Tigers versus the visitors proved to be as much about the emotion during the interval than the on-field action during play.
Martin Johnson headed a contingent comprising Leicester old boys in honour of Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' shirt 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 close to their very best, whereas Bath found themselves in the middle of a long drought without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they've held that status since the 1990s.
A Truly Emotional Reception on Home Turf
Leicester, riding a powerful emotional surge, served up a classic, robust reception, embracing the role of the unfancied team on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders greatly inspired by Moody’s confession during the break that, no matter where he may live, Welford Road will always be his rugby home.
Looking back, Bath were always up against it. Sure enough, in a last-minute assault deep in Bath territory, the Tigers managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
A Dramatic Decisive Moment
The replacement fly-half, on for the excellent James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his debut start for the club, darted blind, before the Bath prop caught him high, an infringement for which he received a yellow card. From the final play, Searle slotted the penalty kick from a difficult angle to steal the win.
It felt like being transported back to Lewis Moody's prime. Without a doubt, Leicester, who moved up the table in a congested league, can take great encouragement that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, no matter the pedigree they face.
A Tale of Two Styles
The visitors were a different class when in possession. 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 put 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 tries were works of art. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath scored the tries, 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 Tense 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. In fact, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty in 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 lively Ollie Hassell-Collins on the left wing. After earning the penalty that earned Bath the lead in a situation he relishes, the unfortunate prop gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
