Clinical Tigers sink Bath dreams

Leicester booked their place in the Guinness Premiership final at Twickenham with a commanding 24-10 victory over Bath at the Walkers Stadium on Saturday.

Three tries courtesy of Dan Hipkiss, Sam Vesty and Lewis Moody, plus 12 points from the boot of Julien Dupuy, proved a bridge too far for the West Country men, who have endured a gruelling run in to end of the season.

Leicester played with power and poise, dominating throughout, and the result never really looked in doubt despite 18 second half minutes that saw the visitors score twice.

A clinical, even ruthless, display by the Tigers caused enormous problems for the Bath defence right from the opening whistle and they were simply unable to recover from the onslaught.

Soon after the start Bath almost found themselves at a disadvantage when Nick Abendanon escaped a trip to the sin bin following a cynical late tackle on Scott Hamilton.

The New Zealand winger almost latched onto a clever crossfield kick from Vesty and Bath must have breathed a sigh of relief not to have found themselves down to fourteen men with barely five minutes gone.

Relentless

Julien Dupuy, however, began in similarly shaky fashion to last week at Cardiff and missed the resulting penalty from wide on the right.

But the hosts continued to bomb the Bath defence and it looked only a matter of time before the visitors would succumb to the relentless Tiger tidal wave of pressure.

The breach finally came in the 16th minute when centre Dan Hipkiss opened the scoring for Leicester.

The pack played a crucial part, recycling the ball through ten phases before releasing Hipkiss, who jinked through the Bath line, easily shrugging of Abendanon's poor challenge before crossing by the posts.

Dupuy slotted an easy conversion to give his side a 7-0 lead and Leicester continued to pile on the pressure forcing Bath into some desperate defending.

The Tigers went agonisingly close twice more before the second try came three minutes before the break, courtesy of the mercurial Vesty.

Confident

Choosing to run the ball rather than take three points from a penalty close to the right touchline, Leicester spread the ball wide to their three quarters,

Vesty collected 15 yards out and made full use of the dummy runners to carve a corridor through Bath's defence and touch down by the posts for the tenth try of his Guinness Premiership career.

Again Dupuy hit the target with a simple effort to take the home side into half time with a 14-0 lead and, by now, well and truly in the driving seat.

Bath had the opportunity to score two minutes after the restart when Leicester were penalised at the break down but Ryan Davis hit his long range effort wide.

Davis missed again within minutes with another kick from distance, but the visitors were beginning to look more confident as they attempted to pick up the pace.

The tactic paid off within seconds when Michael Claassens, picking up the ball at the base of the ruck, spotted a hole on the short side and sneaked through for a Bath try.

Davis was unable to add the crucial extras leaving the scores at 14-5.

Five minutes later and Dupuy extended the lead to 17-5 when Bath were penalised for coming in at the side of a ruck.

But this spirited Bath side were not for lying down and on 57 minutes Stuart Hooper produced a great finish for their second try wide on the right.

Davis missed again leaving the visitors trailing by seven points on 17-10 but it proved to be of little consequence when on 69 minutes Leicester scored their third.

Johne Murphy, in space on the left wing, chipped ahead only to be downed in what looked like another cynical play by Abendanon.

But Moody, on as a replacement for a matter of minutes, followed up to cross for Leicester and break Bath hearts, while Dupuy added the extras to close out the game.