🔗 Share this article Searle's Last-Minute Penalty Delivers Emotional Leicester Win Against Bath Amidst a classic rugby union's greatest rivalries, this match involving Leicester versus Bath was heavily influenced by an emotion at half-time as the rugby on the pitch. Martin Johnson headed a phalanx of Leicester old boys to pay tribute to Lewis Moody, who has revealed his diagnosis with motor neurone disease. The last time Moody last pulled on the Tigers' jersey at Welford Road, a decade and a half past, prior to joining their rivals Bath for the last two years of a storied career, the home side were more or less close to their very best, while their opponents found themselves enduring a long drought without the title. Times have changed since. The Tigers’ great rivals arrived as champions, marking the first occasion they've held that status in over two decades. An Emotional Welcome on Home Turf Leicester, riding a powerful emotional surge, offered them an old-fashioned welcome, embracing the role of the unfancied team on their own pitch, the 18,000 Midlanders greatly inspired by Moody’s confession at half-time that, no matter where he may live, Welford Road remains his rugby home. Looking back, the visiting side were always up against it. True to form, during a final, desperate attack on the Bath line, Leicester managed to coax a crucial penalty out of the Bath defence. A Dramatic Decisive Moment The replacement fly-half, on for the impressive James O'Connor, the seasoned Australian making his first start for Leicester, 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. It felt like being back in the days of Moody’s pomp. Without a doubt, Leicester, who moved up the table in the mid-table bun fight, will be heartened that a familiar frontal assault can still yield results, regardless of the quality they face. Contrasting Styles The visitors were sublime when in possession. Therefore, Leicester, after a bewildering first half-hour in which they fell 17-7 behind, learned to deprive them of any. A deluge of penalties conceded by Bath put Bath on the back foot, their forwards comprehensively bested in the scrums and lineouts for most of the match. The Tigers' three touchdowns were carbon copies of each other, neither scored from more than a yard; Bath’s three were works of art. Frost, Underhill, and Redpath were the finishers, either side of Cracknell's score for Tigers. Subsequently, capitalizing on the penalty count, Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith powered over to score either side of half-time. 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 won enough ball to grab a fourth try. In fact, their scoring opportunity arrived via an infrequent penalty at the scrum, their South Africans by then on. The fly-half, after missing two earlier kicks, successfully converted the penalty inside the final ten minutes. That only inspired Leicester to launch one final, powerful assault, initiated by the energetic Hassell-Collins on the left wing. After earning the penalty that put Bath ahead where he is most comfortable, the unfortunate prop conceded where he is not. There could be only one result.