Leicester beat youthful Bath to gain home cup final
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English Prem Rugby Cup semi-final
Leicester (17) 46
Tries: Threlfall, Searle, Reffell 2, Bailey, Palmer, Moro, Hassell-Collins Cons: Searle 2, Whiteley
Bath (7) 21
Tries: Staddon, Tuipulotu, Ridgway Cons: Roue 2, Harrison
Leicester Tigers will host Exeter Chiefs in the Prem Rugby Cup final next Sunday, after scoring eight tries to overwhelm a youthful Bath 46-14 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Tom Threlfall and Ethan Staddon exchanged early tries, before the home side built a lead through scores from Billy Searle and Tommy Reffell before the break.
Faced with the Leicester onslaught, Bath's resolve faltered in the second half with Tigers adding five further tries through Orlando Bailey, Reffell, Harry Palmer Joaquin Moro and Ollie Hassell-Collins.
Late scores for Kepu Tuipulotu and Alex Ridgway proved a mere consolation for Bath, but the visitors can take heart from an encouraging performance as their title defence came to an end.
With the hosts fielding a league-strength side, it took less than 60 seconds for the difference in experience to tell on the pitch.
With Bath's defence caught narrow, Hassell-Collins accelerated down the wing before feeding Threlfall, who was only on the field as a late injury replacement for James O'Connor.
Threlfall outpaced the cover defence to slide over in the corner.
Bath responded quickly through the soon-to-be-departing Staddon, the flanker identifying a hole in Tigers' defensive line, before sidestepping Hassell-Collins to give the visitors a temporary lead.
Undeterred, Leicester then grabbed a quick double through Searle and Reffell, the flanker ploughing through the middle of the driving maul from five metres out, after Bath had been penalised for offside.
With Bath once again finding themselves on the wrong side of referee Harry Walbaum's whistle after the break, Bailey's score was followed by a second for the ever-present Reffell.
Tuipolotu then powered over during a rare moment of Bath possession in the Tigers' 22, before Palmer and Moro added further gloss to the victory.
Hassell-Collins thought he had the final score of the match before Ioan Emanuel's break from deep set up Ridgway to give Bath some cheer on their long journey back down south.
Leicester Tigers: Threlfall; Hamer-Webb, Wand, Bailey, Hassell-Collins; Searle, Whiteley; van der Flier, Blamire, Hurd, Wells, Manz, Palmer, Reffell (c), Moro.
Replacements: Theobald-Thomas, Haffar, Loman, Liebenberg, Manz, Bemand, Woodward, Perese.
Bath: Winters; Emens, Harris, Butt (c), C. Griffin; Roue, Davies; Kirk, Frost, Verden, Bennett, Richards, Staddon, Timmins, Green.
Replacements: Tuipulotu, Emanuel, Summerfield, Maloney, Ridgway, le Roux, Linegar, Harrison.
Referee: Harry Walbaum.
