Bath beat Leicester to secure home semi-final
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<p><strong>The Prem</strong></p>
<p><strong>Bath (17) 24</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tries: </strong>Du Toit 3, Cokanasiga <strong>Cons: </strong>Carreras 2</p>
<p><strong>Leicester (17) 22</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tries: </strong>Bailey, Van Poortvliet, Pearson <strong>Cons: </strong>O&#8217;Connor 2 <strong>Pen: </strong>O&#8217;Connor</p>
<p><strong>Bath held on to beat Leicester Tigers to secure second place in the Prem and set up a home semi-final against Exeter Chiefs next week.</strong></p>
<p>Tigers&#8217; defeat, coupled with Exeter&#8217;s win against Saracens, consigned them to a fourth-place finish in the table and means they will travel to face league leaders and fierce rivals Northampton Saints in Friday&#8217;s first semi-final.</p>
<p>Orlando Bailey gave Tigers the ideal start with an early try, only for Bath to respond with two scores from Thomas du Toit and a third from Joe Cokanasiga.</p>
<p>A Jack van Poortvliet try for Leicester just before the break allowed Australian James O&#8217;Connor &#8211; who landed a crucial penalty earlier in the half &#8211; to convert and level the scores at 17-17 at the interval.</p>
<p>Du Toit completed what was a decisive hat-trick after the break, with the game eventually decided by a missed conversion by Bailey after George Pearson went over for a last-gasp try for Tigers.</p>
<p>There was a minute&#8217;s applause before kick-off at The Rec in memory of Bath legend Roger Spurrell, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cqjpk88kwzwo?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bsport%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D">who passed away at the age of 71</a> earlier in the week.</p>
<p>It was then a former Bath player that went on to quickly subdue the expectant home crowd, with O&#8217;Connor sending ex-Blue, Black and Whites man Bailey over for the game&#8217;s first try after just three minutes.</p>
<p>O&#8217;Connor added to the lead with his conversion, but it was a short-lived advantage for the visitors as South Africa prop Du Toit powered over twice in quick succession to put Bath ahead within 10 minutes of Bailey&#8217;s opener.</p>
<p>O&#8217;Connor got Tigers back to within two points with a 25th-minute penalty, only for Cokanasiga to weave his way over at the other end to add to Bath&#8217;s advantage soon after.</p>
<p>The Van Poortvliet try that O&#8217;Connor converted to level the scores just before half-time proved to be the final say that the 35-year-old Australia international had on the game, as he failed to rejoin the action after the break.</p>
<p>Bath piled huge pressure on Tigers&#8217; defence early in the second half and eventually forced their way over under the posts, with Du Toit getting the ball down for a season-defining treble.</p>
<p>Despite their continued dominance, the hosts failed to go over again in a game that came down to the final few tense minutes.</p>
<p>Bath were bunkered down defending their tryline when a succession of penalties eventually saw Cokanasiga sin-binned, and it was with the numerical advantage that Tigers eventually went over through Pearson.</p>
<p>It was a try that set Bailey up for a shot to level the scores with two minutes to play, but he failed to land his kick and missed the chance to earn Tigers a third-placed finish that would have set up a trip back to The Rec.</p>
<h2>Van Graan &#8216;stoked&#8217; at Bath win &#8211; reaction</h2>
<p><strong>Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Somerset:</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a two-point margin again, the same as last year&#8217;s final. I&#8217;m absolutely stoked that we got through that one.</p>
<p>&#8220;You work 46 weeks to get into this position, you go through ebbs and flows, but we are very difficult to beat here, and we are looking forward to next week.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is now our third home semi-final in a row and that says we have become consistent, and I&#8217;m so glad for this group of players because they are the ones that put in the hard work every day.</p>
<p><strong>On Du</strong><strong>Toit after he scored his career first hat-trick:</strong> &#8220;He is some player, a legend while he is still here. He is an incredible man, a family man, a team man, player, husband, dad and friend. You can put any words into it – he is an incredible human being.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Leicester Tigers head coach Geoff Parling told BBC Radio Leicester:</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m frustrated, but I&#8217;m proud. I thought we did lots of good things in the game, but they probably managed the [wet] conditions better in the first half.</p>
<p>&#8220;I thought we were going at them at the end of the game, and with five more minutes maybe it could have been different.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will now dust ourselves off, take some learnings, and chuck everything now into Saints next Friday.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Bath: </strong>De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, Arundell; Carreras, Spencer (capt); Obano, Tuipulotu, Du Toit; Hill, Ewels, Bayliss, Underhill, Barbeary.</p>
<p><em>Replacements:</em> Frost, Van Wyk, Sela, Molony, Richards, Carr-Smith, Redpath, Reid.</p>
<p><strong>Sin-bin: </strong>Cokanasiga (77).</p>
<p><strong>Leicester Tigers: </strong>Pearson; Radwan, Wand, Bailey, Hamer-Webb; O&#8217;Connor, Van Poortvliet; Smith, Blamire, Heyes; Henderson, Chessum (capt), Liebenberg, Reffell, Cracknell.</p>
<p><em>Replacements:</em> Clare, Van der Flier, Hurd, Martin, Watson, Bemand, Kata, Perese.</p>
<p><strong>Referee: </strong>Ian Tempest.</p>
<p><img src="https://a1.api.bbc.co.uk/hit.xiti/?s=646754&;p=sport.rugby-union.articles.clypxn933gwo.page&;x1=%5Burn%3Abbc%3Aoptimo%3Aasset%3Aclypxn933gwo%5D&;x4=%5Ben-gb%5D&;x5=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fsport%2Frugby-union%2Farticles%2Fclypxn933gwo%5D&;x7=%5Barticle%5D&;x8=%5Bsynd_nojs_ISAPI%5D&;x9=%5BBath+beat+Leicester+to+secure+home+semi-final%5D&;x11=%5B2026-06-06T16%3A19%3A34.33Z%5D&;x12=%5B2026-06-06T16%3A45%3A34.981Z%5D&;x19=%5Byahoo.north.america%5D" /></p>

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