ONE of the striking features of the, Pilkington Cup is how the biggest guns which in recent times have been Bath and Leicester are never trained on each other until the final and yesterday the English Rugby Football Union president, Bill Bishop, did it again when he kept the holders and league champions apart in the semi final draw.
The likelihood now is that Bath will go on to defend the trophy, against Leicester on May 4th at Twickenham. There will be a capacity attendance of 78,000, a world record for a club game which would have been set whichever of the semifinalists or indeed the last eight had got there. The final was already sold out before last Saturday's quarter finals.
Bishop did London Irish, the first Second division team to make the semi finals, the favour their status deserved by pulling them out at home, although a visit to Sunbury by Leicester is hardly favourable. Bath will play Gloucester at the Recreation Ground.
For London Irish, the cup run is proving a distraction, however pleasant, from the real business of their season accompanying Northampton out of the Second Division. Their pairing with Leicester is laden with nostalgic sentiment, since it was the Tigers to whom they lost when they reached their only final in 1980, the second of Leicester's three consecutive cup wins.
Among the Tigers who faced the Irish that day in front of 61,000 fewer than will be at Twickenham 16 years on was an England centre by the name of Clive Woodward, who in his latter day incarnation as coach of London Irish has become something of a guru of attacking rugby.
