Amidst one of rugby union's most storied contests, the fixture between the Tigers and the visitors proved to be heavily influenced by the emotion at the interval as the on-field action on the pitch.
The legendary Martin Johnson led a contingent comprising Leicester former players in honour of the great Lewis Moody, after he revealed that he has been diagnosed with MND.
The last time Moody last pulled on a Leicester shirt here, a decade and a half past, prior to joining their rivals Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, the home side remained still at the peak of their powers, while their opponents found themselves in the middle of a lengthy period without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath arrived as champions, the first time they've held that status in over two decades.
A Truly Emotional Reception on Home Turf
Leicester, on a wave of emotion, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as underdogs on their own pitch, the large home crowd further emboldened by Moody’s confession at half-time that regardless of his residence, Welford Road remains the home of his rugby heart.
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 from the tiring Bath defenders.
The Decisive Moment
Billy Searle, who replaced the excellent James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, darted blind, and Thomas du Toit caught him high, for which offence he received a yellow card. From the final play, Searle slotted the penalty kick from a difficult angle to snatch a dramatic victory.
It felt like being back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Without a doubt, the home team, who moved up the table in a congested league, will be heartened that a familiar frontal assault remains effective, regardless of the quality they face.
Contrasting Styles
The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour in which they fell 17-7 behind, adapted to starve them of possession. A deluge of penalties against Bath kept Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts 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 were works of art. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath were the finishers, either side of Cracknell's score for Leicester. Then, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith forced their way over to score either side of half-time.
A Tense Finish
Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, which they held for most of the second half. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath secured sufficient possession to score their fourth. In fact, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty in the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty inside the final ten minutes.
That only inspired Leicester to launch one final, powerful 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 gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. There could be only one result.
