Bath overpower Bristol to reach Premiership final

Gallagher Premiership play-off semi-final

Bath: (6) 34

Tries: Hill, Cokanasiga, Muir, Ojomoh Cons: Russell 4 Pens: Russell 2

Bristol: (13) 20

Tries: Dun, Janse van Rensburg Cons: MacGinty, Byrne Pens: MacGinty 2

Bath booked a place in their second consecutive Premiership final coming from behind to win a pulsating play-off semi-final against neighbours Bristol.

The Bears took a slender first-half lead through two AJ MacGinty penalties sandwiched between an excellent try from James Dun, as two Finn Russell penalties were all Bath put on the board.

But Bath moved in front early in the second half with Ted Hill and Joe Cokanasiga tries turning the tide, before Will Muir and Max Ojomoh scores opened up a gap that the Bears could never overcome, despite Benhard Janse van Rensburg pulling one back.

Bath, beaten finalists by Northampton at Twickenham last year, will face either Leicester or Sale who play on Saturday as they bid to win their first league title since 1996.

Bath, who finished 11 points clear at the top of the table, remain in the hunt for a treble having already won the Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup.

The hosts secured a home semi-final with three rounds still to play and rested all of their first-choice players against Saracens a week ago, the same day Bristol's play-off fate was confirmed.

The Bears conceded they were underdogs coming into the match yet had the upper hand in terms of head-to-heads, having won five of their past six Premiership meetings.

If there was any psychological advantage to be had, they tried to seize it early on.

Bristol stuck first through MacGinty's penalty and as they have all season looked threatening whenever they quickly moved the ball.

Dun ran in next to the posts for a breathtaking try that began five metres out of Bath's try-line after the hosts kicked the ball deep into Bristol territory.

Kalaveti Ravouvou won the foot race with Muir, collected the ball and made 40 metres solo, skipping through one tackle and bouncing off another.

Janse van Rensburg's clear-out opened space for Ellis Genge to pass to Bath-born Dun to make it 10-0.

Indiscipline has been a constant issue however for the Bears and they were needlessly on the backfoot as Ravouvou tripped Ben Spencer and was sent to the sin-bin, to allow Russell to kick their first three points.

Still Bristol had Bath on the ropes at both ends. Some incredible ball-handling almost saw them score again only to lose it inches from the line, while at the other end full-back Noah Heward turned Bath over to help deny them any tries in the first 40 minutes.

Bristol were dealt a blow when scrum-half Harry Randall left the field before half-time with a shoulder injury, potentially jeopardising his chances of featuring for England this summer.

Russell's second penalty was matched by another from MacGinty to give the visitors a 13-6 lead at the break.

Bath's strength in depth has been a huge mark of difference this season and they came out for the second half looking like they had a point to prove, as they won a penalty almost straight from kick-off and Hill went on to run in on the overlap to draw Bath level.

At the other end the Bath flanker sprinted back to produce a try-saving tackle to deny Ravouvou, before Tom de Glanville kicked through for Cokanasiga to collect and dive over and put Bath in the lead.

While Bath's forwards were held out as they drove forward from a line-out, Bristol could not stop Muir scoring their third try in 14 minutes as they switched the direction of play.

And when Bristol's replacement scrum-half Kieran Marmion was also shown yellow for an infringement at the breakdown - forcing winger Gabriel Ibitoye temporarily to move to nine - it was not long before Ojomoh stretched over for the hosts' fourth try to push them 21 points clear.

Bristol were twice held up when they did manage to pressurise Bath's line and while Janse van Rensburg caught a Harry Byrne kick to tap down a consolation with five minutes to go, it was not to be for the Bears who fell short and still wait for a first Premiership final appearance.

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:

"[I am] incredibly proud of the group, great game of rugby, two good sides. We knew it was going to be an 80-minute performance. I felt we adapted well at half-time, from 13-6 down to 34-20 - pretty proud of that.

"That's what Bristol do well, they suck you into playing the way they did. The one quick tap I thought we could have handled better – we spoke about it at half-time and I thought that second half we were class.

"That pressure was similar to last year's semi against Sale. It's about pressure and can you handle the pressure and we came under pressure and we handled it.

"Both sides gave it their all, that's what you get in a semi-final, the want and the hunger to get to Twickenham and the hunger was there from our side."

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"We started this season where everyone thought we were going to finish nowhere near it and eighth place and we did so well to get to where we were. It wasn't to be tonight.

"We wanted to build the points – we probably left some points out there. We really work on quick ball and some of that ball got slowed up and wasn't really dealt with.

"But ultimately Bath showed their class in that second half. Big moments they got down there [and] we didn't deal with the high ball very well.

"To give ourselves a chance at this was massive, I couldn't be prouder of the way we came at them. There's some really good times ahead, we plan on being here next year and going one step further.

"We know we're good enough to be there, we've got to do it consistently but there's a lot of good young players coming through."

Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Ojomoh, Redpath, Muir; Russell, Spencer (c); Obano, Dunn, Stuart, Roux, Ewels, Hill, Pepper, Barbeary.

Replacements: Annett, Van Wyk, Du Toit, Molony, Reid, Carr-Smith, Donoghue, Bayliss.

Bristol: Heward; Ravouvou, Janse sVan Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Kloska, Dun, Batley, Luatua, Harding (c), Mata.

Replacements: Thacker, Woolmore, Lahiff, Rubiolo, Grondola, Marmion, Byrne, Bates.

Sin bin: Ravouvou (23 mins), Marmion (57 mins)

Referee: Christophe Ridley