Bath entered this game knowing that a victory against Leicester would mean they would stay at the top of the Guinness Premiership, the position that they had occupied for the last six weeks or so because of the break from the Premiership to allow for Heineken and EDF games to be played.

Whilst the eyes of the rugby world rested mainly on the international matches taking place in slightly less glamorous places than the glorious Rec on an autumn afternoon, dedicated rugby fans watched as two of the most famous names in English rugby did battle.

Both teams had lost some of their star players to England commitment, and for Bath this was increased by the injuries to Nick Abendanon and Michael Claassens.

Leicester started powerfully, with all the possession and territory. Bath were lucky to get a chance to kick at goal considering they had barely touched the ball. Butch James was kicking well when aiming at the posts today, and Bath had a three point lead. Hougaard kicked three back straight away.

It was all Leicester but a sudden spurt of energy from Butch James saw him offload beautifully to Pieter Dixon, who ran from between the half way line and the 22 to score under the posts. Leicester spent the most of the first half attacking the Bath line, but the Bath defence had an absolute blinder, and stood up to anything thrown at them. Managing to keep Leicester out at this point was ultimately what won the game.

Butch James kicked another penalty and then forced through a grubber kick that resulted in a Bath scrum almost on the try line. A great scrum later and Daniel Browne steered the forwards over to claim Bath's second try.

In the second half, it all got a bit silly. The referee missed practically everything, and seemed oblivious to the offside rule and the basic principles of rugby that, hello, you are not actually able to throw the ball forward y'know! The tackles were brutal, the words spoken angry and kudos to Justin Harrison for being knocked clean out at least once but battling on and seemingly refusing to go off, despite staggering around as if he'd had too much Guinness.

Hougaard kicked two penalties to cut Bath 's lead to 11 points, and then, after a succession of forward passes and all sorts of silliness went unnoticed, Johne Murphy went over for Leicester and the gap was only four.

Dixon was yellow carded in the mayhem that followed and Mefin Davies subsequently used the extra man and went over for a try that had seemingly won it for Leicester. I had put my notepad away and people were leaving as Bath kicked the restart with less than two minutes to go.

Eternally optimistic, I shouted my little cotton socks off, but even I couldn't believe my eyes when Butch James, eschewing the chance to kick a drop goal to win it, sent a kick into the corner, with captain Crockett chasing. Crockett couldn't make the line, but threw a looping pass to James that miraculously, he caught, and flew over the try line to grab the win in injury time. He missed the conversion, but I could have kissed him when the team came out afterwards- it was a moment of genius. It was almost unbelievable, but the noise reverberating around the Rec proved it had actually happened.

This match was frustrating, irritating, powerful and utterly brilliant. Aside from the referee's display and the slightly messy nature of a lot of the play in the second half, it was one of the best games I have watched in a long time. My heart has only just stopped racing. I joined in with Alex Crockett as he leapt around after the try was scored, and if today proved anything, it's not over until it's over!

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