Bath drown out Leeds
Bath crushed Leeds 57-5 at The Rec to set up a home semi-final against Sale in the European Challenge Cup.
Last Updated: 05/04/08 7:04pm
Bath crushed Leeds 57-5 at The Rec to set up a home semi-final against Sale in the European Challenge Cup.
Steve Meehan's side maintained their 100 percent record in this season's competition with a hammering of their Guinness Premiership rivals.
They ran in eight tries in total, winger Matt Banahan leading the way with a hat-trick to take his tally for the season to 13.
Even without England international Steve Borthwick, missing through injury, Bath were still too strong for a much changed Leeds side from the one that was smashed 66-7 by Saracens last weekend.
It took the hosts just two minutes to open the scoring with an Olly Barkley penalty, though they were forced to wait until just before the midway point through the first half for their opening try.
Banahan's first of the afternoon was quickly followed by Nick Abendanon getting on the end of a chip over the top to score a second.
Lone reply
Leeds managed to respond with their only points of a one-sided contest, skipper Stuart Hooper, who will be playing for Bath next season, helping to set up centre Rob Vickerman.
The try only seemed to anger Bath back into action and they scored within 42 seconds of the re-start through Andrew Higgins.
Barkley added the conversion and was on target with the boot again after getting across the line himself. He finished the game with a personal haul of 22 points.
Jonny Faamatuainu ran through a tired Leeds defence to get his name on the long list of Bath scorers before Banahan took over in the closing stages.
He finished off good work by Alex Crockett and Abendanon to grab his second and then completed his treble just before the final whistle.
