It has been a while but the old firm of English club rugby are finally back. Between 1978 and 1997 Bath and Leicester collectively won 15 national knockout trophies and over the first 15 years of the league’s existence they claimed 12 titles between them. Their reunion at Twickenham is akin to those other 90s chart-toppers, Oasis and Blur, dusting down their favourite guitars and appearing on stage together.
The temptation is to dive head first into a foaming tub of nostalgia and wallow in the rekindled rivalry. If anyone had predicted in 1996 that Bath would not win another domestic title in the next 29 years they would have been laughed out of the convivial old Rec clubhouse. Leicester, similarly, thought the ABC Club and the Tigers’ steely winning mentality would live for ever.
