Amidst one of rugby union's greatest contests, the match involving Leicester versus Bath proved to be heavily influenced by the emotion at the interval as the on-field action during the pitch.
Martin Johnson led a phalanx of Leicester old boys to pay tribute to Lewis Moody, who has announced that he has been diagnosed with MND.
When Moody last pulled on a Leicester shirt at Welford Road, a decade and a half past, before moving to Bath for his final two seasons in a distinguished playing 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 arrived as champions, the first time they have called themselves that since the 1990s.
An Passionate Welcome on Home Turf
The Tigers, on a wave of emotion, served up an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as underdogs on their own pitch, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, Welford Road remains his rugby home.
Looking back, Bath did not stand a chance. Sure enough, during a final, desperate attack deep in Bath territory, the Tigers managed to coax a crucial penalty out of the Bath defence.
A Dramatic Decisive Moment
The replacement fly-half, who replaced the excellent James O'Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his debut start for the club, darted blind, and the Bath prop 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 steal the win.
It felt like being back in the days to Lewis Moody's prime. Without a doubt, Leicester, who moved up the table in a congested league, will be heartened that their traditional, direct approach remains effective, regardless of the quality of the opponent.
Contrasting Game Plans
Bath were sublime when in possession. Therefore, Leicester, following a confusing opening period which saw them trail 17-7, adapted to starve them of possession. A succession 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 remarkably similar, all scored from close range; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, before and after Ollie Cracknell’s try for Leicester. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Reffell and Smith forced their way over to score just before and just after the break.
The Tense Finish
Those scores gave Leicester the lead, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath won enough ball to score their fourth. Actually, their scoring opportunity came with a rare penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty with a little less than 10 minutes to play.
This merely galvanized Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the energetic Hassell-Collins down the left. After earning the penalty that earned Bath the lead in a situation he relishes, the unfortunate prop conceded where he is not. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.
