Saracens’ Anglo-Welsh Cup defence came to a bitter end after a 32-10 loss to Leicester Tigers in the semi-final at Allianz Park.

Tigers fly-half Freddie Burns scored 17 points to propel his side into their first final since their successful Premiership campaign in 2012-13.

It was also Saracens first home defeat this year.

A penalty from Burns and two converted tries from George Worth and Luke Hamilton put Leicester into a 17-5 half-time lead, scrum-half Henry Taylor getting the only home score.

And the visitors picked up where they left off after the break with prop Ellis Genge crossing from short range.

A further Burns penalty kept the scoreboard out of the defending champions’ reach and with Saracens continuing to produce errors, an intercepted pass gave Burns a 70-metre run to the line.

Matt Gallagher scored his team’s only points in the second period as Saracens lacked a cutting edge so often seen in the competition this season.

Academy coach Ian Vass said: “We couldn’t get into any flow in the game and the couple of times we did we looked quite good and we scored a couple of tries but it didn’t happy very often.”

“Maybe they had a bit more experience than us but I don’t think that was the real reason we lost the game. They played well and took their chances and I suppose we didn’t take as many chances and the score line got a bit bigger than it should have.”