LONG READ Why Bath and Leicester represent the 'best of the best' in English rugby

Close your eyes, dip into the hat, and pick out the two clubs which represent the most illustrious rivalry English rugby has to offer over its long history, amateur and professional. Now read the names on the ping-pong ball: Bath RFC and Leicester Tigers.

There have been others of course, most recently Saracens and Exeter Chiefs over the past decade, but none quite compare with the rich provenance of Bath versus Leicester, the West Country all-rounders versus the Welford Road hardmen. Bath and Leicester are two of only three clubs to have enjoyed permanent residence in the top flight of English rugby since 1988, for all 37 seasons. Longevity is the ultimate stamp of quality.

The first game between the two clubs was played before the First World War, in September 1913, but the escalation from ‘conventional’ to ‘nuclear’ only occurred with the formation of the Courage leagues in 1987. With silverware at stake and rugby life on the line, Leicester won the first title in 1987-88 and Bath took the honours one year later, despite losing to the Tigers in the last round of the season at Welford Road. That defeat was the Midlanders’ way of thumbing their nose at their West Country rivals, denying them a perfect winning season at the very last gasp. That was the spiteful grit in the oyster.

The two clubs proceeded to share 12 of the next 15 league championships, and nine of the knockout cups on offer, and that was the beautiful pearl. Their success effortlessly spanned the wide bridge between the amateur and professional eras, and the friction between the clubs bloomed into a classic rivalry in the handover period, with both still near peak performance. Forget London, the power base of English rugby was out west and in the middle of the country. Bath won six league titles between 1989 and 1996, while Leicester won their nine trophies in the years 1992-2002. From 1993 to 1996 it was the eye of a perfect storm, merely a question of who would finish first in a two-horse race.

The two clubs contested the Pilkington Cup final in 1994 and 1996, and some of the individual contests read like the ultimate joust for the best knight in the land: John Hall and Andy Robinson versus Dean Richards and Neil Back in the back row, Graham Dawe against Richard Cockerill and the ABC club at the front. Even the legendary Martin Johnson had his hands full with Nigel Redman and Cornishman Martin Haag. Behind it would be the Underwoods versus Tony Swift and Adedayo Adebayo on the wings. These were England trials by another name, and worthy successors to Stuart Barnes versus Les Cusworth and Paul Dodge and Clive Woodward against Simon Halliday and Jeremy Guscott in a previous generation. You can add ‘Chalkie’ White and Jack Rowell, shaping the on-field fates of their charges from the coaching box.

The delicious razor-sharp intensity of those times has been documented by players who participated on both sides of the argument. Leicester prop Graham Rowntree lived through the white-hot rivalry in the peak years.

“My first meeting with Bath – and Gareth Chilcott – was in 1992 and they beat us at Welford Road,” he said. “Chilcott said something like, ‘Fancy some then, youngster?’ and I wondered what I’d let myself in for.

“In January 1997 we went down to Bath a week after we’d lost the European Cup final against Brive. In the warm-up, Bath supporters were singing the French national anthem to wind us up. We went out and dusted them that day, with Stuart Potter going over in the corner.

“I remember the warm-up before a game and ‘Cockers’ [Richard Cockerill] running over Graham Dawe’s fingers. ‘Dawesy’ just looked up and smiled, and Cockers knew then he was in for a hard afternoon. And they didn’t disappoint. But off the pitch the Bath guys were great, I think there was proper respect between the players. I even used to share a room with Dawesy on England duty.”

Over the last 15 years it has been slim pickings after that rich early harvest on the cusp of professionalism. Leicester have won the Premiership title twice and Bath not at all, and that constitutes a proper drought for supporters of both clubs.

When they meet again in the final on Saturday it will be the first time since 1999-2000 the two clubs have contested the showpiece match. Several stats reveal a latent similarity in approach between the pair, rather than the classic contrasts of yore.

Both clubs are now coached by foreigners: Australian Michael Cheika for Leicester and South African Johann van Graan at Bath. Both thrive in low ball-in-play scenarios where they can dominate territory and squeeze the opposition via the strength of their scrum, defence and kicking games. That is second nature to the Welford Road club but much more of a novelty at the Recreation Ground.

The major difference between the pair is Bath’s power off the bench in the final quarter, which won them their semi-final against Bristol just as it has been driving their game all season long. With 30 minutes remaining the score was deadlocked at 13-13, but Bath ran away to win the game 34-20, posting a 21-7 win in that last half hour.

To have a chance in the final, the Tigers will need to be able to counter that Bath upsurge in the closing stages: in the round 17 meeting between the clubs, Leicester lost the final quarter 19-0, and the second half as a whole 24-0. Maybe that was what Cheika had in mind when he found it necessary to defend his players after their narrow victory over Sale Sharks in the second play-off.

“We need to go up a level for sure, and it will be on us as coaches to give the lads some tips on how they can give that little bit extra,” he said.

“I know we will be down there again next week, up against what everyone thinks we can do against Bath because of the way they’ve played, and it’s up to us to believe in ourselves. That’s the first step to achieving, believing that we can achieve it.

“They gave us a bit of a ‘tonking’ when we were down there a few weeks ago. Bath is the only team we haven’t beaten yet this year, so we have got to find a way to master that opponent.

“To win the comp you have got to beat all the teams, right?”

Bristol managed to expose some holes in the Bath wide defence, but Leicester do not share the same counter-attacking philosophy as the Bears. That will make the West Countrymen’s long kicking game more potent, and it is already in the very capable hands of half-backs Ben Spencer and Finn Russell.

The duo bring a perfect balance to the kicking game: Spencer off the left foot, Russell off the right; Ben short and high, Finn long and deep. As a pair, they are probably the best the Premiership has to offer with the boot.

After the initial regather of the high kick off Spencer, Russell would have been thinking ‘crosskick to the far wing’ had he still been playing for Glasgow Warriors, or donning national colours. But under Van Graan the decision-making process has changed, and the priority is to drive the team straight down the field. It is accompanied by a suitably Springbok-like ‘we don’t care what you think’ grimace of determination on the Scotsman’s face after the long kick is made. That would have been unthinkable indeed in the Rowell era.

Once again, there is no thought in Spencer’s mind of pass-and-support after the first aerial ball is reclaimed, it is rather kick-and-chase to become the most advanced tackler near the Bristol goal line: a vertical rather than a horizontal stretch of the defence. That decision-making process will be entirely alien to supporters of the club who can remember the halcyon days of the late eighties and early nineties – but it is winning football within the modern Van Graan coaching matrix.

One of the reasons Bristol matched up better than anyone with the champions-elect in the semi-final and in regular season was their ability to challenge the long kicking game on the counter.

It has become a regular occurrence to watch Pat Lam’s Bears defying the odds from their own goal line, but can Cheika’s Tigers change their stripes in time Saturday? It is an intriguing question for a side which only scored 25% of its tries from turnover ball [eighth in the league] during the regular season, but Leicester may have to go against type to hoist the trophy.

Bristol finished their move from ‘the ends of the earth’ triumphantly.

Both England’s two most prominent clubs of the eighties, nineties and early noughties have struggled to adapt to modern trends. A rich and seemingly endless bounty of silverware has turned largely to famine.

Now Bath and Leicester will meet again at the old cabbage patch this weekend, 25 years after they last contested the final match of the season. The days of every Bath-Leicester encounter as an England trial may be long gone, but the ancient rivalry is revived. For many of the supporters of both clubs whose memories stretch back thirty, forty, even fifty years, that will be more than enough. Trends may change, but loyalties remain.