Honeymoon periods are not meant to end before the knot has been officially tied but Andy Robinson's desire to be England's permanent head coach will be sorely tested this morning. In theory the next two days are devoted to national squad training; in practice he will be lucky if anyone from Leicester or Bath musters the energy to limp down to breakfast.
It was a wonder some of the tight forwards could still walk to their cars on Saturday night. There may have been more ferocious, brutally compelling battles in the Premiership over the past couple of seasons but none springs immediately to mind. By the end of a taut afternoon it was akin to watching two heavyweight boxers clinging to each other in the final round of a major title bout and the repercussions for English rugby may rumble on for weeks.
For a start the respective coaches, John Wells and John Connolly, established a new Premiership all-comers' record by warning of burn-out among England's elite barely six weeks into a nine-month season. Connolly, in particular, believes his players need a break until at least Wednesday and the Tigers' prop Julian White, who has picked up a shoulder problem which requires further examination, has become England's latest fitness worry.
"We've asked to be notified through [the RFU's performance director] Chris Spice exactly what England are doing at training," revealed Connolly, concerned that England did too much heavy contact work under Robinson last week. "You've got to be very careful how you manage the players after that sort of game, otherwise you're just going to kill them. These guys will be playing big games every week until mid-July. Common sense must prevail."
Wells, for his part, complained that England's demands had left him only 75 minutes' active preparation time before Saturday, describing his team's build-up as "a shambles" after three of his forwards returned from Bagshot nursing injuries.
The Tigers may sit on top of the table but, with next month's internationals looming, Wells faces the prospect of losing half of his first-choice side and is not alone in wondering aloud if the seeds of another damaging club v country rift are being sown.
That is not what Robinson needs to hear as he prepares to present his head-coach credentials to an RFU panel on Thursday. The better news is that in the scrum-half Harry Ellis he has a genuinely live Test prospect, the 22-year-old's cocksure dart to the left corner five minutes from the final whistle earning the Tigers two points which seemed highly unlikely when they trailed 13-0 early in the second-half.
Bath have not played so collectively well for a while and their locks, Danny Grewcock and Steve Borthwick, did their England prospects an immense amount of good, not least in terms of the amount of defensive work they got through in a contest played at Test intensity. Quite what Robinson does at openside flanker for the Canada game on November 13, however, remains a matter of heated debate following Neil Back's insistence he will not be reversing his decision to retire from international rugby.
At present, with Richard Hill crocked and Lewis Moody still in the early stages of a comeback, Gloucester's uncapped Andy Hazell is the only specialist in the squad while another back-row candidate, the Leicester No8 Martin Corry, must hope the match commissioner takes a lenient view of the boot which caught the exposed face of Bath's captain Jonathan Humphreys in the final quarter.
It may yet be that Bath's Michael Lipman, dropped from the elite group this summer, will be recalled and his early try and general work-rate on Saturday convinced Connolly that Robinson should look no further. "Hazell is tiny and his club didn't see fit to play him against us last week, Moody's only got four weeks to get ready and, no disrespect to Neil Back, I just can't see the point of taking a step back," said Connolly. "Lipman's a Test player because he's great at the hand-to-hand combat stuff. You've got to look at players who can handle the physicality of it all."
The man of the match, though, was unquestionably Humphreys, now in his last season as a top-level player. At 35 the Bath skipper not only lasted the whole game but played with an indomitable will which infused all his team-mates. Even if he was left trailing by the nippy Ellis for the equalising score which had to be ratified by the video official, the former Wales captain could justly claim to be first among equals.
Leicester: Murphy; Holtby, Smith, Rabeni (Hipkiss, 80), Vesty; Broadfoot, Ellis; Rowntree, Chuter, White (Morris, 49), Johnson (capt), Kay, B Deacon (W Johnson, 52), Back, Corry.
Tries: Murphy, Ellis. Pens: Murphy, Broadfoot.
Bath: Best; Higgins, Fleck, Tindall, Daniel; Barkley (Malone, 80), Wood; Barnes (Stevens, 50), Humphreys (capt), Bell (Barnes, 78), Borthwick, Grewcock, Beattie, Lipman (Scaysbrook, 80), Feaunati.
Try: Lipman. Con: Barkley. Pens: Barkley 2. Drop-goal: Barkley.
Referee: C White (Cheltenham). Attendance: 16,800.
