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Amidst one of English rugby's greatest contests, this fixture involving Leicester versus Bath was as much about the emotional tribute during half-time as any on-field action during the pitch.

Martin Johnson led a phalanx of Tigers former players to pay tribute to the great Lewis Moody, after he announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.

The last time 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 were more or less still at their very best, whereas Bath found themselves in the middle of a lengthy period without the title. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they have called themselves that since the 1990s.

An Passionate Reception on Home Turf

Leicester, on a wave of emotion, served up a classic, robust reception, relishing their status as underdogs in their own stadium, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that regardless of his residence, this famous ground remains his rugby home.

In retrospect, Bath were always up against it. Sure enough, in a last-minute assault on the Bath line, the Tigers won a crucial penalty out of the Bath defence.

The Decisive Moment

The replacement fly-half, on for the excellent James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his debut start for the club, took a quick tap, before the Bath prop made a high tackle, an infringement for which he received a yellow card. From the final play, Searle slotted the penalty kick on an angle to snatch a dramatic victory.

We might as well have been back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, the home team, who climb a little higher in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, no matter the pedigree they face.

Contrasting Styles

The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour which saw them trail 17-7, adapted to starve them of possession. A succession of penalties against the away side put Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed at the set piece for most of the match.

The Tigers' three touchdowns were remarkably similar, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, before and after Cracknell's score for Tigers. Subsequently, on the back of those penalties, Reffell and Smith powered over for tries either side of half-time.

The Nail-Biting Conclusion

Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for most of the second half. It appeared inevitable before Bath won enough ball to score their fourth. Actually, their breakthrough arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. Finn Russell, after missing two earlier kicks, landed the kick with a little less than 10 minutes to play.

This merely galvanized Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, set up by the energetic Hassell-Collins on the left wing. After earning the penalty that earned Bath the lead where he is most comfortable, poor Du Toit gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.