Premiership Rugby Cup: Ealing Trailfinders 21-29 Leicester Tigers - Tigers survive scare to make final

Championship leaders Ealing had beaten Northampton and Bristol in the pool stages of this competition

Leicester Tigers overcame a huge scare from Championship side Ealing Trailfinders to set up a Premiership Rugby Cup final against Gloucester.

Phil Cokanasiga and Finn Theobald-Thomas tries put Tigers ahead early on.

Will Goodrick-Clarke's try nudged Ealing in front before a second Cokanasiga try put Tigers ahead again, although when Mike Willemse replied the gap was down to a single point.

But Matt Scott's late try was enough to book Leicester's final spot next month.

Ealing rattle Tigers

Championship leaders Ealing have lost only once in the league this season and have averaged over 40 points per game, so they demanded respect from their visitors.

That was also the case from the pool stages where they had beaten current Premiership leaders Northampton Saints and Bristol Bears to reach the last four.

The west London club have been on the rise for years and won the Championship in 2019 and 2022, but the limited capacity of their Trailfinders Sports Ground, which stands at just over 5,000, has denied them the chance to apply for promotion to the Premiership.

But they started like a team used to winning and their physicality had the Tigers on the back foot, as former England centre Billy Twelvetrees kicked two penalties to put them ahead.

However, momentum shifted as Ealing's South African second row Bobby de Wee was sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul.

With De Wee on the sidelines, Cokanasiga drove through the inside channel to cross for the Tigers' first try.

Then with Twelvetrees having struck the post with a penalty to restore his side's lead, Leicester's forward pack showed their grunt as Theobald-Thomas touched down after a driving maul from their line-out.

But Ealing refused to go away and a third Twelvetrees kick halved the deficit early in the second half.

The Premiership side remained under pressure and prop Dan Richardson was yellow-carded, then with him off the field Goodrick-Clarke burrowed over after Ealing had camped near the tryline.

Twelvetrees hit the upright with his conversion attempt, which proved important as a Jamie Shillcock penalty restored Leicester's lead.

When Cokanasiga intercepted Max Bodilly's pass to race clear for his second try the game appeared to be over, but Ealing showed great spirit as South African prop Willemse crashed over to make the score 22-21 in Leicester's favour.

And it was only Scott's score in the 79th minute after good work from replacement scrum-half Sam Edwards which allowed Leicester to relax and look forward to facing Gloucester in the final on the weekend of 16 March.

Leicester Tigers head coach Dan McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester:

"Ealing are a quality side - they've got 1200 caps at the top level professionally and 60 international caps, so they're a Premiership side really.

"This is a good competition, a really good development tool, with young players getting exposed as we saw today and taking their chance.

"You don't get opportunities too often in your career to win trophies, so we'll play Gloucester in an unreal atmosphere and it'll be a really tough game."

Ealing: Bodilly; Holmes, Bird-Tulloch, Twelvetrees, Cordy-Redden; Lancaster, Hampson; Goodrick-Clarke, Cornish, Alo, De Wee, Maddison, Farrar, Reid, Smid.

Replacements: Willemse, Whyte, Roots, Davidson, Hardwick, Williams, O'Brien, Montgomery.

Sin-bin: de Wee (21)

Leicester: Brown; Scott, Kelly, Cokanasiga, Hassell-Collins; Shillcock, Whiteley; Van Wyk, Theobald-Thomas, Richardson, Wells, Hatherall, Liebenberg, Rogerson, Cracknell.

Replacements: Clare, Whitcombe, Hoyt, Carter, Ilione, Edwards, Wilkinson, Woodward.

Sin-bin: Richardson (56)

Referee: Adam Leal

• Subscribe to the Rugby Union Daily podcast

• Add rugby union alerts to your BBC Sport app