Bath Rugby’s ‘hungry bunch of boys’ claimed their place in the final of the Premiership Rugby Cup with a 41-29 victory away at Newcastle Falcons on Friday night.

The Blue, Black and White will now face either Exeter Chiefs or Ealing Trailfinders next weekend with the second semi-final taking place at Sandy Park on Saturday lunchtime.

It certainly wasn’t easy running for Bath though despite the visitors sitting top of the Gallagher Premiership and Falcons cemented to the foot of the table. A second half surge saw Newcastle go 10 points ahead midway through the second half but Johann van Graan’s side showed their championship metal to power to victory with a brace of tries from Ethan Staddon and Austin Emens and touch downs for Alfie Barbeary and replacement prop Francois van Wyk enough to get the job done. While he didn’t get on the scoreboard, player of the match Max Ojomoh excelled at outside centre to provide the tip of Bath’s sword in attack throughout the fierce and physical battle at Kingston Park.

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Newcastle registered tries through Alex Hearle and Murray McCallum while winger Ben Stevenson ran in a brace in a highly entertaining 10-try match.

Speaking post-match, Ojomoh said: “T his group has worked so hard over the year. To see where we are now from where we were a couple of years ago is very rewarding and just down to all the graft everyone has put in.

"That is a good team we have beaten today. It is massive to reach a final, especially for the old boys like Tom Dunn who have been here for 16 years and not won anything. They are our motivation. We have also got a bunch of hungry boys who want to make a statement.”

More to follow...

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Alex Hearle, 13 Connor Doherty, 12 Sammy Arnold, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Murray McCallum, 4 Philip van der Walt, 5 Kiran McDonald, 6 Freddie Lockwood, 7 Cameron Neild, 8 Callum Chick (c).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Micky Rewcastle, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Sebastian de Chaves, 20 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 21 James Elliott, 22 Kieran Wilkinson, 23 Oli Spencer.

Bath Rugby : 15 Austin Emens, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Max Ojomoh, 12 Will Butt, 11 Ruaridh McConnochie, 10 Ciaran Donoghue, 9 Tom Carr-Smith; 1 Arthur Cordwell, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Kieran Verden, 4 Ewan Richards ©, 5 Ross Molony, 6 Arthur Green, 7 Ethan Staddon, 8 Alfie Barbeary

Replacements: 16 Jasper Spandler, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Harvey Cuckson, 20 Miles Reid, 21 Neil le Roux, 22 Louie Hennessey, 23 Jaco Coetzee

Referee: George Selwood

Assistant Referees : Sara Cox and James Clarke

TMO: David Rose

Attendance: 4502