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Amidst a classic English rugby's greatest contests, the fixture between Leicester versus the visitors proved to be heavily influenced by the emotion during half-time as the on-field action during play.

Martin Johnson headed a phalanx of Tigers former players in honour of Lewis Moody, after he revealed his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.

When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' shirt here, a decade and a half past, prior to joining their rivals Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, the home side were more or less close to the peak of their powers, whereas their opponents found themselves enduring a long drought without the title. Times have changed since. The Tigers’ great rivals came into the match as title holders, marking the first occasion they have called themselves that since the 1990s.

An Passionate Welcome at Welford Road

Leicester, on a wave of emotion, served up an old-fashioned welcome, embracing the role of the unfancied team on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders further emboldened by Moody's heartfelt admission during the break that regardless of his residence, Welford Road will always be his rugby home.

Looking back, the visiting side were always up against it. Sure enough, during a final, desperate attack deep in Bath territory, Leicester won one last penalty out of the Bath defence.

The Climax

The replacement fly-half, who replaced the excellent James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, took a quick tap, before Thomas du Toit 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.

We might as well have been transported back to Lewis Moody's prime. Certainly, Leicester, who climb a little higher in a congested league, can take great encouragement that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, regardless of the quality they face.

Contrasting Game Plans

The visitors were sublime with ball in hand. So 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 kept Bath under constant pressure, their forwards thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match.

The Tigers' three touchdowns were remarkably similar, all scored from close range; Bath’s three were works of art. Dan Frost, Sam Underhill and Cameron Redpath scored the tries, before and after Ollie Cracknell’s try for Tigers. Then, on the back of those penalties, Reffell and Smith forced their way over for tries just before and just after the break.

The Tense Finish

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 came with a rare penalty at the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, landed the kick inside the final ten minutes.

That only inspired 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 in a situation he relishes, poor Du Toit gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.