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Amidst a classic English rugby's greatest contests, the fixture involving Leicester and Bath proved to be as much about an emotion during the interval as the rugby during play.

Martin Johnson led a phalanx of Tigers former players in honour of Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with MND.

The last time Moody last pulled on a Leicester shirt at Welford Road, a decade and a half past, before moving to their rivals Bath for the last two years in a distinguished playing career, Leicester were more or less close to their very best, while their opponents were situated enduring a long drought devoid of championship success. Times have changed since. Bath arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they've held that status in over two decades.

A Truly Passionate Welcome on Home Turf

The Tigers, on a wave of emotion, offered them 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 regardless of his residence, Welford Road remains his rugby home.

Looking back, the visiting side were always up against it. Sure enough, in a last-minute assault deep in Bath territory, Leicester managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.

The Climax

Billy Searle, who replaced the excellent James O'Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, took a quick tap, and the Bath prop made a high tackle, for which offence he saw yellow. With the last kick, Searle slotted the penalty kick from a difficult angle to snatch a dramatic victory.

We might as well have been back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Without a doubt, the home team, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that a familiar frontal assault remains effective, regardless of the quality of the opponent.

A Tale of Two Game Plans

Bath were sublime with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, following a confusing opening period in which they fell 17-7 behind, learned to deprive them of any. A succession of penalties conceded by the away side kept Bath under constant pressure, their pack comprehensively bested at the set piece throughout the game.

Leicester’s three tries were carbon copies of each other, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath’s three were studies in poetry. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath scored the tries, before and after Cracknell's score for Tigers. Then, capitalizing on the penalty count, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith powered over to score just before and just after the break.

A Nail-Biting Finish

Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It appeared inevitable before Bath secured sufficient possession to grab a fourth try. In fact, their scoring opportunity arrived via an infrequent penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, landed the kick inside the final ten minutes.

This merely galvanized Leicester for one last, brutish assault, set up by the lively Ollie 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.