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Amidst a classic English rugby's most storied contests, the match involving the Tigers and the visitors proved to be as much about the emotion at half-time as any rugby on play.

The legendary Martin Johnson headed a contingent comprising Leicester former players in honour of the great Lewis Moody, after he revealed his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.

The last time Moody wore a Leicester jersey at Welford Road, a decade and a half past, before moving to Bath for the last two years in a distinguished playing career, the home side were more or less still at their very best, while Bath found themselves enduring a long drought devoid of championship success. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, the first time they've held that status since the 1990s.

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 in their own stadium, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that regardless of his residence, Welford Road will always be his rugby home.

Looking back, the visiting side did not stand a chance. True to form, in a last-minute assault on the Bath line, the Tigers managed to coax a crucial penalty from the tiring Bath defenders.

The Climax

Billy Searle, on for the excellent James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, darted blind, and the Bath prop made a high tackle, an infringement for which he saw yellow. With the last kick, Searle landed the penalty from a difficult angle to steal the win.

It felt like being transported back of Moody’s pomp. Without a doubt, Leicester, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that their traditional, direct approach remains effective, no matter the pedigree they face.

A Tale of Two Styles

The visitors were sublime with ball in hand. So Leicester, following a confusing opening period which saw them trail 17-7, learned to deprive them of any. A succession of penalties conceded by Bath kept Bath under constant pressure, their pack thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match.

The Tigers' three touchdowns were carbon copies of each other, all scored from close range; Bath's three tries were works of art. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath were the finishers, either side of Cracknell's score for Leicester. Then, on the back of those penalties, Reffell and Smith forced their way over for tries just before and just after the break.

The Nail-Biting Conclusion

That earned Tigers a narrow advantage, which they held for most of the second half. It appeared inevitable before Bath won enough ball to score their fourth. Actually, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty in the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, having missed two of his three earlier attempts, successfully converted the penalty inside the final ten minutes.

That only inspired Leicester for one last, brutish assault, initiated by the energetic Hassell-Collins on the left wing. After earning 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.