Premiership final: Bath out to end 29-year title drought as Ben Youngs and Dan Cole seek fairytale Leicester farewell | Rugby Union News
The end of treble-chasing Bath’s 29-year wait for the title, or a fairytale Leicester farewell for Dan Cole, Ben Youngs and co?
Saturday’s mouth-watering Gallagher Premiership final at Allianz Stadium Twickenham will see two stalwarts of English rugby – scrum-half Youngs, 35, and prop Cole, 38 – call time on their illustrious careers.
Youngs – England’s most-capped men’s player, with 127 appearances – is seeking his sixth Premiership title, while Cole, who represented his country 118 times, is bidding for a fifth.
As well as Cole and Youngs, Tigers head coach Michael Cheika takes charge of his final game before making way for Geoff Parling, while captain Julian Montoya and South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard also play their final games for the club.
Cheika is asking his players to trust each other one more time and finish their journey together this season with victory in his last match in charge.
“That is a really fundamental part of building teams,” said Cheika. “First they have got to be able to trust each other – we have got to be able to have honest conversations and be prepared to have a fight with each other.
“As long as it is a fight where you are going in the same direction, then you are trying to get the same thing done, that’s okay.
“They are playing as part of a team, and in the team, those dynamics are extremely important.
“We are going to need that on Saturday, because we are playing against the team that dominated the league and we need to find a way to master that opponent.”
Bath or Leicester – who will get their hands on English rugby’s greatest prize?
No room for sentiment for Spencer
Bath captain Ben Spencer maintains his squad can have no room for sentiment when Youngs and Cole bring the curtain down on their careers.
England scrum-half Spencer feels the Leicester contingent have certainly earned their respect in the game, but that will count for little when Bath look to cap a memorable campaign with more silverware and a first Premiership title since 1996.
“They are two legends of the game and of English rugby – they both have over 100 caps for their country,” said Spencer.
“They [Leicester] are feeding off the energy of those guys leaving, but is not just those two – it is Montoya, it is Pollard and there are a few more.
“Obviously the game will be worse off without them, but I don’t think there is any part of me or any of the Bath lads that don’t want to spoil that party.
“It will be sad to see them go, but I am hoping that we lift the trophy at the end of the day on Saturday afternoon.”
Can Russell take Bath ‘one step further’?
Finn Russell was part of the Bath team that lost to Northampton by four points in last season’s final
Bath fly-half Finn Russell says a treble-clinching victory over Leicester will deliver a “special” response to last season’s Gallagher Premiership final heartache.
Table-topping Bath finished 11 points ahead of second-placed Leicester in the regular season.
Bath have savoured success domestically and on the continent this season, securing the Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup, but their treble aspirations hinge on claiming the trophy Northampton beat them to by four points last season.
Russell, who is tasked with taking Bath over that crucial final step, said: “I came here to win things, as a group we’re going in the right direction to hopefully achieve something special here.
“One of my goals coming to Bath was to win some stuff, as it is for probably all of the players here. I think we’ve almost got back to where we wanted to be but hopefully go one step further this year.”
Russell added: “I like Twickenham, I think it’s a great stadium. This game’s been sold out for a while now, but it sounds like there’ll be a lot of Bath fans there so I’m really looking forward to that.
“Usually when I play there it’s 70-odd thousand against me. I love big games and playing in front of a sold-out Twickenham will be brilliant for us.”
Teams: Two Bath alterations as Leicester unchanged for final
Johann van Graan makes two changes from the side that beat Bristol 34-20 in the Gallagher Premiership play-off semi-final.
Thomas du Toit comes into the front row, while Miles Reid slots in at No 8, with the backs unchanged from last weekend’s semi-final.
For Leicester it is as you were after their 21-16 semi-final victory over Sale Sharks as Michael Chieka names an unchanged XV for Saturday’s showdown at Twickenham.
