Biggs stars in Bath win
Bath winger Tom Biggs grabbed a hat-trick as Bath completed a 31-3 LV Cup victory over Exeter on Sunday.
By Simon Dilger
Last Updated: 05/02/12 7:31pm
Bath winger Tom Biggs grabbed a hat-trick as Bath completed a 31-3 LV Cup victory over tryless Exeter on Sunday.
The win ended a four-game winning streak for Exeter and set up a semi-final showdown with Leicester for the West Country men.
In contrast, Exeter will now be focused solely on league matters after failing to make the semi-finals of the tournament.
Biggs opened the scoring early on, when he chased a grubber kick through the Exeter defence and touched down in a goal line scramble. Centre Olly Barkley converted to give the visitors a 7-0 lead after seven minutes.
Four minutes later Exeter were denied at the other end when winger Ollie Woodburn got back in the nick of time to ground the ball after Bath's clearance kick was charged down., the tv official confirming 'no try'.
Intercept
Exeter fly-half Myles Dorrian missed a 37 metre penalty attempt from in front of the posts on the 20 minute mark and just a minute later Biggs went in again for Bath.
His second came in almost identical fashion as the first, when fly-half Stephen Donald booted a low kick through the home side's lines after spotting the winger lurking on the left with space out wide.
This time however Barkley was unable to add the extras and on 25 minutes Dorrrian pulled three back with a penalty to make it 12-3.
Biggs third came on the half hour when he expertly read a missed pass and grabbed the intercept to race in unopposed. Barkley slotted the extras to take give the visitors a 19-3 lead, which remained until the break.
Almost 20 second half minutes had passed before the next points found their way onto the scoreboard.
Crashed
The try came as Bath sought to push home their advantage after the hosts had lost Chris Whitehead to the sin bin 12 minutes after the restart.
Olly Barkley floated long cut out pass over his centres to Woodburn who shot down the right touchline before cutting inside with a neat sidestep to touch down and extend Bath's lead to 24-3.
Barkley saw his conversion attempt from out wide glance off the far upright. With seven minutes left on the clock Exeter once again found themselves a man down when Bryan Rennie was sent to the sin bin.
Two minutes later Bath almost made them pay when replacement Richard Lane raced down the touchline and dived over, but the tv official ruled that he had been forced into touch inches short.
There were no doubts about the outcome seconds later though, when Josh Ovens crashed over for the visitors fifth and Barkley converted to close things out.