Tigers edge past Bath with final kick of the game

The Prem.

Leicester (12) 22

Cons: O’Connor 2 Pen: Searle; Tries: Cracknell, Reffell, Smith

Bath (17) 20

Tigers of Leicester defeated old rivals Bath at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in the final game of the Premiership championship season to reclaim their defeat from last year’s final.

Before Sam Underhill and Cam Redpath gave Bath a comfortable cushion in a frantic opening quarter, Dan Frost and Olly Cracknell exchanged tries.

Tommy Reffell and Nicky Smith scored either side of half-time to give the Tigers a decisive victory as Bath appeared desperate and awarded a string of penalties.

With eight minutes left, Russell gave Bath a slim lead before Billy Searle scored a penalty to earn the win with the visitors’ 14-man advantage.

In his first start for Bath, Santi Carreras kicked forward in midfield to follow his teammates. Adam Radwan squandered the ball to give the Argentina international a second chance.

On what was also his first game in blue, black, and white, Henry Arundell scored a try first on the ball before off-loading to Frost.

However, that lead did not last long.

Tigers were penalized in the scrum, which caused them to tap and depart from the five-meter line.

After a few counterproductive thrusts, James O’Connor added the extras before Cracknell made the final push.

Bath and Stung both gave thanks in kind.

The visitors regrouped after another break from Carreras, who had deep into Tigers territory, and who had allowed Underhill to pirouette past the try line despite O’Connor’s depressing tackle.

The center gained from Arundell’s searing pace down the touchline as Bath continued to lead through Redpath.

The Scot created a perfectly timed dummy that went over unaided because Freddie Steward had come across.

Leicester’s response to the game’s ebbing and flowing was unexpected.

They believed they had launched a counter-attack of their own, Hanro Liebenberg launching into the corner after the try was denied for a forward pass, but it ended up being only a temporary setback.

After a lengthy period of Tigers pressure, when Bath found themselves at the wrong end of referee Adam Leal’s whistle, Leicester maintained the pressure and eventually came to a draw level.

Then, neither team was able to break through the other’s 22 midfield stalemate.

Bath finally managed to resurrect the game after the team was desperately in need of some inspiration.

At the scrum, Russell was given the opportunity to capitalize on the tee to give the visitors a point lead.

Before Thomas du Toit was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Searle, Bath mounted a determined goal-line stand as the game progressed.

The replacement fly-half promptly recovered himself to score the crucial penalty that put an end to Bath’s perfect season.

Geoff Parling, the head coach of the Tigers of Leicester, addressed the match to BBC Radio Leicester:

First of all, I believe that the game could have ended badly because we had missed that kick because of my realism.

Regardless of what transpired at the end, what I’m really pleased with is that we put ourselves in a position to win the game.

“I think certainly in the first two rounds, there were instances where things didn’t go our way and we looked a little shabby,” said one participant. “We stuck to our process and continued to do our job today.

We made a lot of money for each other. I told the young men to “pour your heart into the shirt,” and I assumed we had done that before the game.

On Lewis Moody, a motor neurone patient, and the other Tigers legends who came on the pitch at half-time:

In the changing room, I briefly discussed it.

“I thought today was a fantastic advertisement for us to get behind our own, not just Lewis Moody but also Ed Slater,” said Slater. When Doddie (Weir) was present, the entire MND community was present.

Johann van Graan, the head coach of Bath, addressed BBC Radio Bristol following the game:

When you lose it like this, up by a point away from home, it’s always a sickening feeling. In the end, we were put under pressure because of the penalty count’s loss.

“Rustic rugby is fascinating because sometimes you win it like that and vice versa,” he said.

When questioned about the similarities between the June Premiership final:

“This was two points, not two points in the final,” it’s obvious. A really big aerial battle against one another was a good set-piece battle.

“We left some opportunities open in the first half, and I thought we scored some fantastic tries.”

Replacements: Wand, Loman, Hurd, Wells, Ilione, Allan, Searle, and Clare.

Carreras, De Glanville, Hennessey, Redpath, Arundell, Russell, Spencer (c), Obano, Frost, Stuart, Roux, Molony, Staddon, Underhill, Barbeary, and More.

Replacements: Green, Van Wyk, Du Toit, Richards, Reid, Carr-Smith, Butt, and Dunn.

Sin-bin: Du Toit (81).