Vereniki Goneva brace powers Leicester past dismal Stade Francais

Vereniki Goneva's try brace helped Leicester Tigers thump a woeful Stade Francais 41-13 at Welford Road to book their first trip to the European Cup semi-final in seven years.

Manu Tuilagi, Freddie Burns, Mike Fitzgerald and Telusa Veainu all crossed as Leicester racked up six scores as they comfortably secured passage to the European Champions Cup semi-finals.

The Tigers will now meet Racing 92 at Nottingham's City Ground on Sunday, April 24, after the Paris club dethroned three-time champions Toulon 19-16.

Richard Cockerill's Leicester will have to raise their level considerably to extend their quest still further for their first European crown since 2002, such was Stade's malaise in the East Midlands.

England battering ram Tuilagi was again deployed at inside centre in his battle to master the 12 berth, but this clash was far too staccato to make any lasting judgements on his suitability for that new role.

A curiously free-form game was ushered in in the first minute; Djibril Camara completely misread the bounce on fly-half Burns' grubber and after the winger was bundled into touch by the chasing Leicester defenders, Burns was first to both feet and ball and fired a quick line-out to Tuilagi.

The inexcusably static Stade defence could do nothing to stop the England centre coasting in for perhaps the easiest score of his career.

Morne Steyn landed two penalties to Burns' one as both sides ground through a scrappy middle-third to the half.

Finally, Leicester stopped conceding needless penalties and sharpened up their attack, sufficiently enough at least to free Goneva for the second score.

Harry Thacker initially linked well with Burns to fashion an unlikely midfield opening, only for prop Dan Cole to stem the move unwittingly by joining the line at the wrong time.

The move ought to have died there and then, but Betham's blindside switch reignited the attack.

With three of Stade's players sucked in to defend the Australian centre and a fellow Leicester attacker, Betham fed a completely unmarked Goneva on the touchline to give the Fijian winger a clean run to the line. 

Minutes later Leicester struck again, Burns intercepting a poor pass in the midfield from Steyn to coast in under the posts; Leicester went into the interval with a 24-6 lead without once finding fluency in a one-sided first half.

Former Leicester scrum-half Julien Dupuy nipped in for Stade's sole try to start the second half, but any thoughts of a recovery were quickly extinguished.

Captain Mathew Tait's break set the Tigers back on the prowl, before Ben Youngs exploited a woefully-open blindside to send Goneva tearing away for his second score of the afternoon.

Owen Williams replaced Burns at fly-half just ahead of the hour, quickly striking a post with a penalty - that ultimately led to Leicester's fifth try.

Tait countered Stade's clearance with pace, allowing Brendan O'Connor and Veainu to combine well on the right.

Marcos Ayerza's astute tap-pass opened space on the left and Goneva sent flanker Fitzgerald home rather than chase his hat-trick.

Veainu ghosted in all too easily for Tigers' sixth score, swan diving home untroubled as the Tigers completed their rout.