Leicester beat youthful Bath to gain home cup final

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' head coach Geoff Parling told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I know they named a younger team, but I thought we went about it in the right way. We were more inaccurate than I would have liked in the first half, but overall I thought we stuck to the task at hand and did a lot of good things.

"The try we scored, (through Joaquin) Moro in the corner – was one of my favourite tries of the season - the execution of the simple things done really well - the support lines, offloads, squaring defenders up – we're looking to do the real simple things really well and move the ball."

On being asked what it felt like to secure a home final next Sunday:

"It's a reward for the grit and determination we showed in earlier games – we went behind to Sarries, got a result, went behind to Quins and got a result."

Bath's lead academy coach Mark Lilley told BBC Radio Bristol:

"(There's) definitely a sense of frustration but also pride, the youngsters that have gone out there, who represented this team were outstanding and stuck with it right to the end with that last minute try, that's what we're all about.

"The bench came on and added some great energy."

On them selecting younger players in the competition:

"51 players used, 11 debuts, very proud to get to the semi-finals and what an experience for that group of lads out there today, they gave it their all and we'll push forward from there with those boys."

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.