Steve Meehan says his Bath side will have to play champions Leicester in a relaxed frame of mind to stand their best chance of winning.
Bath head coach says a calm attitude could pay dividends against Leicester
Steve Meehan says his Bath side will have to play champions Leicester in a relaxed frame of mind to stand their best chance of reaching the Guinness Premiership final.
Bath booked their place in the last four with a 39-3 victory over Leeds Carnegie at the Recreation Ground on Saturday.
It was their 11th victory in their last 12 Premiership matches and set up a semi-final meeting with the Tigers at Welford Road.
Bath scored five tries, including a double for full-back Nick Abendanon, and although they lost 43-20 at Leicester just a month ago, head coach Meehan says a calm attitude could pay dividends this time.
"We have got to relax a bit more than when we went up there last month," he said.
"We seemed to be a bit tense going into the game on that occasion.
"We are in better shape than when we were up there last season, and we want to go there and play to our potential."
Bath lost at Leicester in both the Heineken Cup and league play-off last season and need to reverse that trend if they are to secure their first league title since 1996.
Leeds had already staved off the threat of relegation but had no answer to a Bath team that played within itself for victory.
Abendanon was followed over the line by wing Joe Maddock, Matt Banahan and captain Michael Claassens.
Nothing to prove
Meanwhile, centre Olly Barkley made another pressing selection claim ahead of England's summer tour to Australia and New Zealand by kicking 14 points.
Barkley also helped create several of Bath's more dangerous attacks, and Meehan added: "He would be a certainty for the tour if I was on England's selection committee.
"I think the 12 months he had away from here (when Barkley played for Gloucester) has done him a hell of a lot of good. He feels that he has nothing to prove to anybody, and his rugby is showing that."
Leeds' only points came through a Ceiron Thomas penalty, although rugby director Andy Key claimed his players were motivated for the match despite having already avoided relegation.
"We had achieved our objective weeks ago, but there is still a lot of pride in this team and we recognise it was important to come down here and put up a good performance," he said.
"Unfortunately, that didn't happen today, but we did not come here to make the numbers up."