Tigers hold a Grudge

By Tiger Bud
March 26 2007

Everyone who attended the 1996 Pilkington Cup final will have his or her own memories of the day. Personally, I distinctly remember being an excited 12 year-old with a new hat and flag sitting in the nosebleed section of Twickenham...

...and the unimaginable hurt at the way the defeat was handed out to us. I remember looking over and seeing the Bath fans flags waving and even now it brings some distant pangs of pain. The final will be remembered by Tigers fans for the penalty try incident, and years after Bath shirts with “Lander – 16” on the back of them were seen spotted around various Tigers events.

After the adrenaline rush that was the last 10 (seemed like 50!) minutes of the “full” game on Saturday a crowd of over 8,000 came to support Leon Lloyd and Matt Perry’s joint testimonial event and something that the fans, and the team had been looking forward to for a long time: the chance of revenge. The cast was the same for Leicester, although the waist lines might have increased a little (or lost looking at Darren Garforth!) the sight of seeing Dean Richards again leading a Leicester side out onto the pitch at Welford Road was something special. Unfortunately for Bath there was some absentees, most notably Andy Robinson who claimed that he “didn’t do friendlies”, but since when was a Leicester vs. Bath game ever a friendly?

It is always difficult to gauge how a match like this will be played out beforehand. It could well have turned into a high scoring, free flowing game with everyone feeling a little cheated about the amount of effort actually going into the game, but all doubts were re-assured when Richard Cockerill flew into the Bath players in the opening minutes of the game. The intensity didn’t stop either, Johnno having a few “words” with Bath’s Damian Cronin after a line-out proved that this match meant something to these players and that the old rivalries never really die. It was excellent seeing Johnno, Wells, Backy and the ABC fighting it out with the Bath pack and Niall Malone having the game of his life behind them. The first try was started by an old favourite. Socks down and peering over the back of the scrum Deano picked the ball up and charged through the Bath defence before a lovely pass out of the tackle to Neil Back. After some quick ball recycling Stuart Potter cut a familiar line from deep to score under the posts. John Liley converted the easy shot at goal and Tigers found themselves 7-0 up early on in the game. With the age of the players and the amount of people waiting impatiently on the bench it was only a matter of time before the rotation came into effect. This set the tone for the whole game with players such as Deano making a few cameo appearances (feigning hamstring injury) whilst younger players Back, Malone and Johnson managing a little more. Tudor Thomas tried to keep up, much to the delight of the crowd who could actually hear him.

Steve Hackney, with a little less hair, scored the second try near the left hand corner and tries from Richie Robinson and Dorian West made the score 26-0 to Tigers at half time. The weather decided that it would help provide the half time entertainment with hail balls bouncing off anyone who was stupid enough to not be under cover. By the time the players made their way back onto the pitch for the second half (Rory with hat) the hailstorm stopped and the game returned. Bath finally managed to put some good phases together and scored an excellent try started from behind their own try line. Quick hands and a good turn of pace from De Glanville let Matt Perry in under the posts and finally give the Bath fans who had stayed over from the day before something to cheer about. Bath then took the game to the ever rotating Tigers line up and scored tries through Audrey Lumsden and Charlie Perry before Austin Healey finally made his way off the bench to outpace the Bath defence with an outrageous forward roll try celebration. It seemed that that was enough for Austin though, as he spent the rest of the time standing near the touchline hinting that his part of the testimonial was done.

If Matt Perry’s try was the best looking move of the day then Neil Backs effort was the most satisfying. A catch and drive line-out with Neil showing that you can score from a driving maul without having to go to a TMO, and making sure that he was seen by Lander is something the first team players in attendance should have stood up and taken notice. Man of the match Malone didn’t disappoint either with an excellent try near the end of the game, cleanly converted by Austin Healey from the right touchline. Big thanks must go to Leon Lloyd, who made a brief second half appearance, and Matt Perry for this excellent testimonial game. Sometimes testimonial games can become a farce and cheat the people who have paid to see them. Not this one though, the blood streaming from Darren Garforth’s head at the end paid testament to that.

Some will say the result didn’t really matter on a day like this, but for the 12 year old inside me, it did. Revenge is sweet.