Matt Banahan scored a hat-trick as Bath ran in seven tries to smash Leicester 47-10 on Saturday to reach the English Premiership final.

Banahan scored the first two of Bath's tries in the first half, with Kyle Eastmond adding a third before the break. A try from hooker Tom Youngs gave Leicester hope on the stroke of half-time, as they went into the break trailing 21-10.

However, Peter Stringer and George Ford added further tries in the second half to take the game beyond the visitors, before Banahan completed his hat-trick and Anthony Watson added a seventh try to cap off a scintillating performance.

Bath will now face Saracens in the final at Twickenham next Saturday after last year's runners-up defeated Northampton in the earlier semi-final.

Bath – Tries: Matt Banahan (3), Kyle Eastmond, Peter Stringer, George Ford, Anthony Watson. Conversions: George Ford (6).
Leicester – Try: Tom Youngs. Conversion: Freddie Burns. Penalty: Burns.

Bath – 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Sam Burgess, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 3 David Wilson, 2 Ross Batty, 1 Paul James
Subs: 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 – 15 Niall Morris, 14 Adam Thompstone, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Christian Loamanu, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Ben Youngs (c), 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Ed Slater, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza
Subs: 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.

Photo: Ben Hoskins/Getty Images