Billy Searle’s last-ditch penalty seals poignant Leicester win against Bath

Leicester-Bath this may have been, the great rivalry of English rugby, courtesy of their pre-eminence either side of the turn of the millennium, but there was as much for rugby connoisseurs to savour at half-time as there was during the actual match. Martin Johnson led a phalanx of Leicester old boys in honour of Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with motor neurone disease.

When Moody last pulled on a Leicester shirt here, 15 years ago, before moving to Bath, where he still lives, for the last two years of a storied 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 they had come to know so well. Times have changed since. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, the first time they have called themselves that since the 1990s.

Leicester, on a wave of emotion, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, relishing their status as underdogs on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders further emboldened by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, Welford Road will always be his rugby home.

In retrospect, Bath did not stand a chance. Sure enough, in a last-minute assault on the Bath line, the Tigers managed to coax one last penalty out of the Bath defence. Billy Searle, on for the excellent James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for Leicester, darted blind, and Thomas du Toit caught him high, for which offence he saw yellow. With the last kick of the game, Searle landed the penalty on an angle to steal the win.

We might as well have been back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Certainly, Leicester, who climb a little higher in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that a familiar frontal assault can still yield results, no matter the pedigree of the opponent. Bath were a different class when in possession. So Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour in which they fell 17-7 behind, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties against kept Bath on the back foot, their forwards comprehensively bested at the set piece for most of the match.

Lewis Moody, who has announced his diagnosis with MND, walks around Welford Road at half-time. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

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 were the finishers, either side of Ollie Cracknell’s try for Tigers. Then, on the back of those penalties, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith forced their way over for tries either side of half-time.

That earned Tigers the lead, which they held for most of the second half. It seemed only a matter of time 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, either side of Tom Dunn, the hooker also on, for his 250th appearance. Finn Russell, having missed two of his three earlier attempts to convert, landed the kick with a little less than 10 minutes to play.

That only inspired Leicester for one last, brutish assault, set up by the lively Ollie Hassell-Collins down the left. Having won the penalty that earned Bath the lead where he is most comfortable, poor Du Toit conceded where he is not. There could be only one result.