Exeter Chiefs set up Premiership Rugby Cup final with Bath after narrow win over Ealing Trialfinders

Exeter Chiefs secured a home final against Bath in the Premiership Rugby Cup with a hard-fought 28-24 win over Ealing Trailfinders at Sandy Park on Saturday.

Exeter were far from their best, but scored tries through Josh Hodge, Tommy Wyatt and Ethan Roots and were awarded a penalty try to set-up a chance to lift the first silverware of the season. Josh Hodge added six points form the tee. Ealing were outstanding throughout and stayed in the contest until the dying moments having scored tries through Craig Hampson, Reuben Bird-Tulloch and Matt Cornish, with George Worboys adding five points with the boot and his replacement Craig Willis a further four.

READ MORE: Exeter Chiefs 28-24 Ealing Trailfinders LIVE: Reaction and highlights from semi-final win

Right from the off Ealing showed exactly why they had reached the semi-final of this competition, having beaten Saracens and Northampton Saints en route, and raced to a 10-0 lead as Exeter squandered their early positive field position.

A no-arms tackle from Tamati Tua allowed Worboys to open the Championship leaders’ account from the kicking tee before the Ealing fly-half un-locked the hosts. A flat, potentially forward, pass allowed Trailfinders full-back Tobi Wilson to jet through a gap between Joe Hawkins and Josh Hodge to breach Exeter’s defensive line. He drew in last defender Paul Brown-Bampoe and shipped an inside pass to the tracking Hampson to run the ball over the whitewash. Worboys then added the straightforward conversion.

Shocked into life, having been challenged physically on the gain line and pushed backwards in the scrum, Exeter found some bite with the ball in hand and Jacques Vermeulen pirouetted through the black and orange shirts to hand his side momentum. Moments later Tom Cairns exploited an under-guarded blind side to send Hodge over near the left touch line, rounding under the posts to make his own conversion kick a piece of cake.

Having had their pride dented by Trailfinders for much of the contest, Exeter’s pack then impressively flexed their collective muscles to drive 21m from a lineout to earn a penalty try after Trailfinders lock Danny Cutmore desperately dragged down the speeding maul to also earn a yellow card.

Once back to 15 men early in the second half, Ealing found another gear, and despite Worboys missing a very kickable shot at goal, they took the lead through centre Bird-Tulloch who recovered from being cut in half by player of the match Ethan Roots moments earlier, to run a support line off impressive scrum half Craig Hampson to take his offload and score to edge the visitors back in front.

Trailfinders then opened the gap on the scoreboard up to 10 points after a well-worked move finished with hooker Cornish rumbling over in the corner. At 24-14 down Chiefs were facing the prospect of an embarrassing upset having named close to their strongest available side throughout the competition.

But the introduction of Harvey Skinner for young Ben Coen at fly-half helped switched the momentum of the contest as he quickly slipped Hodge through a gap to allow the winger to weave 40m down-field for Roots to pick and power over the whitewash.

Hodge then missed a long-range penalty which would have levelled the scores at 24-24, but the hosts had just a minute to wait to regain the lead. Paul Brown-Bampoe produced a dominant tackle on Tobi Wilson and then sparked a counter-ruck to turn the ball over. Playing in transition the Exeter shipped the ball through the hands smoothly to Wyatt who joined the line and zipped through a gap to score the game-winning try.

Next Sunday's final at Sandy Park will kick off at midday.

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Tommy Wyatt, 14 Paul Brown-Bampoe, 13 Joe Hawkins, 12 Tamati Tua, 11 Josh Hodge, 10 Ben Coen, 9 Tom Cairns; 1 Kwenzo Blose, 2 Jack Yeandle (c), 3 Josh Iosefa-Scott, 4 Richard Capstick, 5 Christ Tshiunza, 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 8 Greg Fisilau

Replacements: 16 Dan Frost, 17 Billy Keast, 18 Marcus Street, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Martin Moloney, 21 Niall Armstrong, 22 Harvey Skinner, 23 Will Rigg

Ealing Trailfinders : 15 Tobi Wilson, 14 Angus Kernohan, 13 Reuben Bird-Tulloch, 12 Francis Moore, 11 Tom Collins, 10 George Worboys, 9 Craig Hampson; 1 Lefty Zigiriadis, 2 Matt Cornish, 3 George Davis, 4 Bobby De Wee, 5 Danny Cutmore, 6 Rob Farrar, 7 Jordy Reid, 8 David Bridge

Replacements: 16 Scott Buckley, 17 Kyle Whyte, 18 Biyi Alo, 19 Sean Lonsdale, 20 Ollie Newman, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Craig Willis, 23 Michael Dykes

Referee: Joe James

Assistant Referees: Richard Gordon and Calum Howard

TMO : Dan Jones