Amidst one of rugby union's greatest rivalries, this fixture involving the Tigers versus the visitors proved to be as much about the emotional tribute at half-time than any rugby during play.
Martin Johnson headed a phalanx comprising Leicester former players to pay tribute to the great Lewis Moody, who has announced that he has been diagnosed with MND.
When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey here, 15 years ago, before moving to their rivals Bath for the last two years of a storied career, Leicester were more or less still at the peak of their powers, while Bath found themselves 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, marking the first occasion they've held that status since the 1990s.
Leicester, on a wave of emotion, served up an old-fashioned welcome, embracing the role of underdogs on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders further emboldened by Moody’s confession during the break that regardless of his residence, Welford Road remains his rugby home.
In retrospect, the visiting side were always up against it. Sure enough, in a last-minute assault on the Bath line, Leicester managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.
The replacement fly-half, on for the impressive James O'Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, took a quick tap, and Thomas du Toit made a high tackle, an infringement for which he received a yellow card. From the final play, Searle landed the penalty from a difficult angle to steal the win.
It felt like being back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, Leicester, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that a familiar frontal assault can still yield results, no matter the pedigree of the opponent.
The visitors were sublime when in possession. Therefore, Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour which saw them trail 17-7, adapted to starve them of possession. A deluge of penalties against the away side kept Bath on the back foot, their forwards comprehensively bested in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match.
The Tigers' three touchdowns 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 Ollie Cracknell’s try for Tigers. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith powered over for tries either side of half-time.
Those scores gave Leicester the lead, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It appeared inevitable before Bath won enough ball to score their fourth. In fact, their scoring opportunity arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, their South Africans by then on. Finn Russell, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty inside the final ten minutes.
This merely galvanized Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, set up by the energetic Hassell-Collins down the left. Having won the penalty that put Bath ahead in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit conceded where he is not. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
Eva de Vries is a passionate book lover and local writer from Eindhoven.
