Gloucester Rugby are into the Premiership Rugby Cup final after defeating the current champions Exeter Chiefs by 17 points to 14 in what was a cagey and nervy affair at Kingsholm Stadium.
The Cherry and Whites started the game incredibly strong, and earnt themselves a penalty within the first three minutes after a scrum, however it was not converted by local lad George Barton.
George Skivington’s side continued to pile on the pressure and after a bit of handling magic, Zach Mercer managed to send the skipper Lewis Ludlow through in which he put the ball over the try line for the first points of the match.
Although Barton once again couldn’t convert the try.
Gloucester had clearly come armed for a battle and just simply wanted it more in the early stages.
Once again finding a way to the Chiefs try line, and after three or four phases on the line, Max Llewellyn broke through and placed the ball under the posts for the second score of the affair. Along with that Barton converted to make the score 12-0.
Rob Baxter’s Chiefs managed to get their first real hold of the ball about a quarter of the way through the match when Rusi Tuima broke through his opponents defence which eventually came to nothing.
The Kingsholm faithful believed they deserved a penalty after a foul off the ball, but it was not given or even looked at by referee Christophe Ridley around the 30th minute of play.
Although this was swiftly forgotten about when once again Mercer broke the Chiefs line and sent through Josh Hathaway with a lovely grubber kick, to place the ball over the line for Gloucester’s third try of the match.
From the resulting try Barton had a tough kick from the far left hand side and did not manage to convert the try again leaving the score 17-0 as the teams went in at half time.
Skivington made one change at half-time, taking off George Mcguigan and replacing him with Seb Blake, Baxter left it the same for the time being.
The Gloucester defence continued to be relentless as the second half kicked off, holding the ball up on their own try line to deny Exeter of the good restart they would have been dying for.
Baxter pulled the trigger on substitutes within five minutes, taking out Scott Sio, captain Max Norey and Ehren Painter and putting in Harry Elrington, Ciaran Knight and Arthur Clark to try and sure up that defensive line.
The second half became a cagey stop-start affair, with no real clear cut opportunities for either side.
Until the 60th minute when the Cherry and White brick wall finally cracked and Jaques Vermeulen managed to swoop in under the posts to get the Chiefs’ first points on the board, as well as the conversion to make the score 17-7 with 20 to go.
Baxter’s side continued to apply the pressure on Gloucester maintaining most of possession and keeping their opponents well within their half for the next ten minutes and eventually it paid off.
From a lineout the Chiefs pack and Richard Capstick drove a tired looking Gloucester pack over the line for their second try of the game and with the conversion the comeback was well and truly on at 17-14 with ten to go!
Skivington’s side had to dig deep in the dying minutes and after a knock on error from the opposition the Cherry and Whites managed to slow down the clock with a scrum.
From the resulting scrum, Barton collecting the ball and knocked it just over Josh Hodge who actually got a touch on the ball, giving Gloucester possession of the ball with three to go.
The Cherry and Whites managed to hold on and Barton smashed the ball into to touch which led the crowd into complete and utter rejoice.
Gloucester will be facing one of Leicester Tigers and Ealing Trailfinders on the weekend of the 13th and the 15th of March with the final being played at the highest ranked clubs stadium.
