Aviva Semi 2: Bath Rugby v Leicester Tigers, 23 May

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Bath Rugby v Leicester Tigers
Saturday 23 May 2015
KO: 17:00
The Recreation Ground

Live on BT Sport
Referee: JP Doyle (97th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Paul Dix and Ashley Rowden.
TMO: Graham Hughes.

A. Head to Head - Aggregate

56 Played 56
19 Wins 32
32 Losses 19
5 Draws 5
91 Tries 98
58 Conversions 62
146 Penalties 171
6 Drop Goals 13
1,027 Points 1,166
26 Avg. Age 28

B. Head to Head - This Season

Sat 20th Sep 14: Bath Rugby 45 - 0 Leicester Tigers

Sun 4th Jan 15: Leicester Tigers 17 - 8 Bath Rugby

C. Run-In

Bath Rugby

16/05/15: Bath 50 - 30 Gloucester

08/05/15: Quins 26 - 27 Bath

24/04/15: Bath 43 - 18 L Irish

Leicester Tigers

16/05/15: Tigers 22 - 14 Saints

09/05/15: Wasps 21 - 26 Tigers

25/04/15: Tigers 38 - 17 L Welsh

D. Teams

Bath Rugby

15 Anthony Watson
14 Semesa Rokoduguni
13 Jonathan Joseph
12 Kyle Eastmond
11 Matt Banahan
10 George Ford
09 Peter Stringer

01 Paul James
02 Ross Batty
03 David Wilson
04 Stuart Hooper (c)
05 Dave Attwood
06 Sam Burgess
07 Francois Louw
08 Leroy Houston

16 Rob Webber
17 Nick Auterac
18 Henry Thomas
19 Dominic Day
20 Matt Garvey
21 Carl Fearns
22 Chris Cook
23 Ollie Devoto

Leicester Tigers

15 Niall Morris
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Mathew Tait
12 Christian Loamanu
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Freddie Burns

09 Ben Youngs (c)
01 Marcos Ayerza
02 Tom Youngs
03 Dan Cole
04 Brad Thorn
05 Graham Kitchener
06 Ed Slater
07 Julian Salvi
08 Jordan Crane

16 Neil Briggs
17 Michele Rizzo
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Sebastian De Chaves
20 Jamie Gibson
21 Sam Harrison
22 Tommy Bell
23 George Catchpole

Bath, sarries final then..

I just love watching JJ, he is just so good at drawing defenders in.

Agree Rory, ford and jj are going to big stars at the world cup

Anyone got a decent link to this? I'm listening to the Beeb radio and it's awful.

They are talking about how good Banahan is this season, I think there is a clear reason for that, JJ has been starting at 13.

What teams were being investigated for salary cap breaches? The finalists? Lol

Seriously, ill be cheering on bath as their brand of rugby is brilliant to watch

Hood83 wrote:Anyone got a decent link to this? I'm listening to the Beeb radio and it's awful.

Check your PMs.

Hood83 wrote:Anyone got a decent link to this? I'm listening to the Beeb radio and it's awful.

Sent you a pm.

Ooook, bath have 2 in the bin

I thought the quality of referees were much better in the Aviva?

Was mistake did he make Rory?

What was ford doing there?

Should of been a penalty try for taking it down. This is going to be an interest second half. Still don't think we'll win but hopefully it will be closer than first thought

Bt sport down for anyone?

Anyone else got a link

Sorry bathite

We have missed 9 points from kicks now...

Bathite wrote:Anyone else got a link

Pm'd you.

thats the match. what a contribution peter stringer. 37 yrs old and still superbly competitive.

Congratulations bath

We've gone back to not being able to catch

I've had to turn the TV off

Didn't really understand why everyone thought we'd try and play the power game and change the way that worked for us so well all season.

Yeah it's over. Congrats Bath, by some distance the greatest attacking team in England and will get your reward next week (imo). We'll see lots of entitled Leicester fans over the next couple of weeks moaning about how they have a god given right to reach the final every year* but all the real fans will know that the players have given it all this year. In reality making the playoffs was a great achievement and one which I don't think any other English club could have managed under the same circumstances.

The two best teams are in the final and either team would be worthy winners

* not here, but they'll be all over the official forum

Bathite wrote:Didn't really understand why everyone thought we'd try and play the power game and change the way that worked for us so well all season.

Its a shame tigers haven't been able to take our chances, if we were close we could of put far more pressure on bath

wow. bath ball in hand really are sensational. defense very impressive too. but those backs are a world apart.

quinsforever wrote:wow. bath ball in hand really are sensational. defense very impressive too. but those backs are a world apart.

So happy to have ford as our current England 10. I think we should build the team around ford and JJ

What a demolition job. Worse than what we did to Tigers at Ravenhill and that was their biggest ever defeat in Europe.

This season has not been kind to us, but we stuck at it and still got into the play offs.

Hopefully next year with our new coaching setup well improve

That is one embarrassing scoreline for Tigers. Great result for Bath, congrats lads.

I could watch Bath play rugby all day long. Most attractive side going at the moment and lethal on the counter.

JJ's one-handed passes towards the end were a bit cheeky

Some brilliant performances by some of the England stars and nice for Banahan to get his moment in the sun.

Leicester will be glad to see the back of this season.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:That is one embarrassing scoreline for Tigers. Great result for Bath, congrats lads.

Not really, just goes to show where both teams are at the moment. Tigers being a bit lost.

Tigers need a name change, Leicester Pussycats

Well played Bath a pleasure to watch

Cripe,
What a powerful demonstration.

The final will be contested between the Evil Empire and the Dark Side.

They mentioned Matt Tait's move to Bayonne during the commentary and that things might change now that they are relegated.

Were they joking or does Tait have a get-out clause (or hasn't fully signed yet)?

Fantastic achievement by Leicester getting to the semi. But Bath backs have clicked today. After Stringer's try the Tigers defence just collapsed. Took the wind out of their sails and they knew it was done.

Cyril wrote:They mentioned Matt Tait's move to Bayonne during the commentary and that things might change now that they are relegated.

Were they joking or does Tait have a get-out clause (or hasn't fully signed yet)?

I think he has a get out clause, he might stay at tigers if they can agree terms. Those terms I imagine will be a lot less in order for tigers to keep under the cap

Tait does have a clause if he wants I believe.

Cheers for the info guys

He should honour his contract.

If Tigers are up to the cap would another Premiership club suit him? Exeter perhaps? He played very well today despite the scoreline.

Artful_Dodger wrote:What a demolition job.  Worse than what we did to Tigers at Ravenhill and that was their biggest ever defeat in Europe.

Not even their biggest defeat away to Bath this season

TightHEAD wrote:He should honour his contract.

If he has a get out clause in his contact and he exercises it he is honouring the contract. The get out clause is part of the contract he is honouring.

Exiledinborders wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:He should honour his contract.

If he has a get out clause in his contact and he exercises it he is honouring the contract. The get out clause is part of the contract he is honouring.

It will be a get out clause for Bayonne too, the french clubs always do it as they cannot afford the player if relegated.


And to the game, pretty strange when a team score 7 tries to say that their defence was key - but it was. Tigers dominated possession and territory, but in the period between the first two tries the Bath defence (and woeful goal kicking) kept tigers at bay. Of course Bath showed so much more invention when they had the ball - would be fascinated to see wht the scoreline would have been with tigers pack and Baths packs playing.

Boy we need Mauger.


anyway I hope that Bath go on to win the battle of the salary busters as frankly Sarries play anti-rugby, concentrating on defence. Pragmatic but painful for a neutral.

TightHEAD wrote:He should honour his contract.

We all know contracts should be honoured. Glad tait is. Shame bath and sarries haven't kept to salary cap aggreement

nathan wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:He should honour his contract.

We all know contracts should be honoured. Glad tait is. Shame bath and sarries haven't kept to salary cap aggreement

Because Tigers have always stuck to the cap

Not had a chance to watch the game yet but it looks like Bath's attack was streets ahead of ours again and they put us to the sword. Congrats to the Bath boys and good luck in the final.

In a way it's a relief the season is over as we really have been below par and have been dragging out victories to get this far. Better to crash out now then go to the final and taking a hiding at Twickenham. We've got some good signings and some even better players to return from injury so them with an actual head coach in situ we should be a far better team.

nathan wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:He should honour his contract.

We all know contracts should be honoured. Glad tait is. Shame bath and sarries haven't kept to salary cap aggreement

If you can't beat them, join them! (Bruce Craig)

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

nathan wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:He should honour his contract.

We all know contracts should be honoured. Glad tait is. Shame bath and sarries haven't kept to salary cap aggreement

Because Tigers have always stuck to the cap

Only the once to my knowledge and the admitted to it and took a fine. It was caused by Manu breaking through. Tigers were up to the cap limit and Manu was an academy player so his salary didn't count against the cap unless he played more than I think it's five first team games which of course he did so Tigers were slightly over and got the fine.

If you were crooked on a regular basis you wouldn't have admitted that.