Bath end decades of agony in final win over Leicester

The 29 years of angst and agony are finally at an end. Bath are champions of England once again, winners of the Premiership final for the first time to snap their long drought.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

But boy, how they had to work for it, Leicester going hell for leather to threaten a shock – and so nearly pulling it off.

And they might well have done, too, if not for a most unfitting farewell from Dan Cole. In his final game before retirement, a stray shoulder from the veteran prop proved oh so costly for a Tigers team that he has also given blood, sweat and tears. His indiscretion, and the resultant penalty, left old king Cole laying down his crown from the sin bin and Leicester two points short. Bath are worthy winners over the course of the season, but not perhaps so obviously triumphant on the day.

Perhaps, in time, this will come to be known as the Finn Russell final rather than one defined by Cole, the fly-half integral and influential throughout. It was at this ground where the Scot had endured two of his darkest recent days, last year’s defeat in the Premiership final stinging deeply before a singular form of torture in the Calcutta Cup followed this February. Consider some of those ghosts exorcised, the magic man with a magic moment as he plucked an intercept to set up his side’s crucial side. After this triumph, whatever Bruce Craig is paying Russell – and both club and player have denied that it is near certain figures reported – has surely been worth it.