BATH REACHED A first Premiership showpiece for 11 years with a comprehensive 47-10 victory over Leicester Tigers, running in seven tries in their semi-final at The Rec.
The club last made it to the final back in 2004, when they lost out 10-6 to Wasps, but ended their long wait for a return in impressive fashion on Saturday. They will face Saracens, who upset Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens earlier in the day.
The hosts scored three tries in the opening half an hour in a blistering attacking display, before crossing four more times in the second half as Leicester wilted.
Matt Banahan claimed a hat-trick, while Kyle Eastmond, Peter Stringer, George Ford and Anthony Watson also went over, with Leicester’s solitary try coming through hooker Tom Youngs.
After reaching nine consecutive finals, last year was the first time Leicester had not featured at Twickenham since 2004, but they were simply blown away on this occasion by a rampant Bath side, who even managed to cope with briefly going down to 13 men late in the first half. Bath made a flying start, the electric Jonathan Joseph finding space and feeding Banahan to go over in the left corner as early as the second minute.
Freddie Burns erred twice from the tee before sending a third kick through to get Leicester on the board, but in the 25th minute Joseph and Banahan combined for a second time as the wing doubled his tally. Bath had demolished Leicester 45-0 on home turf in the regular season, and it looked as though a repeat could be on the cards when Eastmond’s try made it 21-3 with only half an hour played.
Semesa Rokoduguni brilliantly side-stepped Vereniki Goneva and his kick through bounced kindly for Eastmond to go over. Leicester responded well and incessant pressure saw Anthony Watson and Leroy Houston both sin-binned in quick succession, before Youngs crashed over on the stroke of half-time to give the visitors hope heading into the interval.
Burns and Tommy Bell both missed penalties early in the second half for Leicester, and they were left to rue that profligacy when Stringer – set to depart for Sale Sharks at the end of the season – benefited from Francois Louw’s superb offload to score.
As Leicester became ragged, Bath were able to pick off their opponents at will and Ford, Banahan and Watson all went over in the final 12 minutes to cap a second chastening defeat for the Tigers at The Rec this season.
