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

Leicester mob Billy Searle after his successful penalty won the game with the last kick of the match against Bath. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

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 on the Welford Road turf 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.

“Today’s game was a great advert for how we get behind our own,” said Geoff Parling, Leicester’s head coach. “Not just Lewis, but Ed Slater too. I was at Newcastle when Doddie [Weir] was there. When something happens to one of ours, the whole rugby community gets behind them.”