Searle's Final-Second Kick Secures Emotional Leicester Win Over Bath

Against the backdrop of one of English rugby's most storied rivalries, this fixture involving the Tigers and the visitors was as much about the emotion at half-time as the on-field action on the pitch.

Martin Johnson headed a contingent comprising Tigers old boys in honour of the great Lewis Moody, after he revealed that he has been diagnosed with MND.

When Moody last pulled on the Tigers' shirt here, a decade and a half past, before moving to Bath for his final two seasons of a storied career, Leicester were more or less close to the peak of their powers, while Bath were situated enduring a long drought devoid of championship success. The landscape has shifted dramatically since then. Bath arrived as champions, the first time they've held that status since the 1990s.

An Passionate Welcome at Welford Road

Leicester, on a wave of emotion, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, embracing the role of the unfancied team on their own pitch, the large home crowd greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, this famous ground will always be the home of his rugby heart.

Looking back, Bath did not stand a chance. True to form, in a last-minute assault deep in Bath territory, Leicester won one last penalty out of the Bath defence.

A Dramatic Decisive Moment

The replacement fly-half, on for the excellent James O’Connor, the experienced Wallaby making his first start for the club, darted blind, and the Bath prop made a high tackle, for which offence he received a yellow card. From the final play, Searle landed the penalty from a difficult angle to steal the win.

We might as well have been back in the days to Lewis Moody's prime. Without a doubt, Leicester, who moved up the table in a congested league, can take great encouragement that their traditional, direct approach can still yield results, regardless of the quality they face.

A Tale of Two Game Plans

The visitors were a different class with ball in hand. Therefore, Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour which saw them trail 17-7, learned to deprive them of any. A succession of penalties conceded by the away side put Bath on the back foot, their pack thoroughly outplayed in the scrums and lineouts throughout the game.

The Tigers' three touchdowns were carbon copies of each other, all scored from close range; Bath's three tries were studies in poetry. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, either side of Cracknell's score for Leicester. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith powered over for tries either side of half-time.

The Tense Finish

Those scores gave Leicester a narrow advantage, an advantage they maintained for the majority of the second period. It seemed only a matter of time before Bath won enough ball to grab a fourth try. In fact, their breakthrough came with a rare penalty in the scrum, with their South African reinforcements now on the field. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty 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 down the left. Having won the penalty that earned Bath the lead where he is most comfortable, the unfortunate prop gave away a penalty in a vulnerable position. The outcome was then a foregone conclusion.