CHIEFS ARE PROMOTED!
Bristol Rugby 10
Exeter Chiefs 29
[Exeter win 38-16 on aggregate]
Gareth Steenson kicked Exeter Chiefs into the Guinness Premiership for the first time and admitted: "It's a dream come true to be part of history."
The fly half’s golden right boot landed six penalties and two goals before Simon Alcott's late try on Bristol's home turf to win the inaugural RFU Championship title
Amid jubilant scenes at the Memorial Stadium Steenson said: "It's a dream come true to play Premiership rugby - it's what I've striven for over the past four or five years and to achieve that, well words can't describe it. Everyone has worked so hard for the past year and you saw tonight with the fans how much it means to everybody involved with the club.
Exeter Head Coach Rob Baxter said: "Tactically we were very good. We knew how we wanted to play - we took our kicks at goal and came here with a drop goal strategy. We set up the two games how we wanted to and it paid off."
Bristol boss Paul Hull added: "We didn't produce the goods at the final hurdle. I am disappointed that after all we have done this season we couldn't finish it off. Exeter played a very simple but good game plan in the conditions and they executed it very well."
Steenson, who had given the Chiefs a 9-6 victory in the first leg at Sandy Park, broke Bristol hearts with a near perfect haul.
He continued in the same vein as seven days earlier at Sandy Park, punishing Bristol for their ill discipline and kicking the Chiefs into a 6-0 lead
Bristol hit back when Adrian Jarvis squeezed through a gap and Luke Arscott took the pass to race home for brother Tom to convert.
But it was small respite from Steenson's lethal boot and the Ulsterman kicked two more penalties, including a 53-metre effort, and a drop goal as Exeter's composed forwards continued to hammer the Bristol line
Bristol recovered and countered and almost broke through but Exeter held out for a 15-7 half time lead
Exeter almost got on the try sheet themselves early in the second half when Steenson ran the ball out of his own 22 and Mark Foster and Matt Jess made 60 metres between them before they were tackled and Bristol killed the ball in the process.
The Chiefs spurned a penalty chance to go for a try and kill the game off but Bristol defended superbly from the line out and pulled back three points with a Jarvis penalty
Jarvis hit the post with another penalty and when Redford Pennycook was penalised for a shoulder charge, Steenson made no mistake before adding his second drop goal.
Alcott sealed victory with the final move of the game as he crashed over for video ref Geoff Warren to confirm the try.
Bristol Rugby:
L Arscott; L Robinson, L Eves, J Fatialofa, T Arscott; A Jarvis, J Spice (capt); M Irish, D Blaney, W Thompson, D Montagu, R Winters, I Grieve, R Pennycook, J Phillips. Reps: J Adams (for T Arscott 32-40 & Fatialofa 40), M Vunipola (for Irish 61), S Alford (for Spice 42-49 & 74), S Giddens (for Eves 67), D Barry (for Montagu 67) J Merriman (for Pennycook 67).
Not used: O Hayes.
Scorers: Try: L Arscott; Pens: Jarvis; Con: T Arscott
Exeter Chiefs:
M Foster; M Jess, N Sestaret, P Dollman, P McKenzie; G Steenson, H Thomas; B Sturgess, N Clark, H Tui, T Hayes (capt), J Hanks, C Slade, J Scaysbrook, R Baxter. Reps: T Johnson (for Slade 57), D Gannon (for Hanks 66), S Alcott (for Clark 70), Not used: C Budgen, C Stuart-Smith, D Gray, M Cornwell.
Scorers: Try: Alcott; Pens: Steenson (6); Drop goals: Steenson (2)
Referee: A Small (RFU)
Att: 11850
Chiefs CEO Tony Rowe told the Express & Echo: “I can't really believe we've done it, after 12 years we're there.
"I couldn't watch the last 10 minutes, I had to wander off — it's absolutely brilliant.
"We're going to stay there now, it's been a real team effort all the way through, on the pitch and off it."
Flanker James Scaysbrook added: “It's difficult to describe how it feels, it's been a year's hard work and now it has all been worthwhile," said the Exeter flanker.
"I think it was closer than the scoreline suggested, Bristol pushed us all the way, it has been a very tough two weeks and we're going to know about it for a while.
"It's a real privilege to be on the field for this, there's a lot of people behind the scenes, the squad who have worked hard all year who didn't get on the pitch in the final.
"Let's hope it will be the start of something special, we won't know until next season, but we'll make the most of this victory in the next few days.
"The hard work will kick in and we'll start thinking about next year in a few days' time."
Bristol head coach Paul Hull was left devastated by his side`s failure to win promotion back to the Premiership at the first attempt.
The loss of the £1.75 million RFU parachute payment for the coming season means that there will be tight times ahead at the Memorial Stadium with several key players expected to leave the club as a result.
But of the second leg defeat to Exeter Hull told the Evening Post: “If anything could have gone wrong, it went wrong for us tonight in every aspect of the game.”
"It's hard to see what we did well tonight – Exeter obviously deserved it and they won both matches. It was a bitterly disappointing evening.
"It looked like the pressure told in the end – the mistakes that happened, the turnovers, the penalties we gave away. It looked like a lot of individuals didn't work collectively as a team at times and went off the page. We didn't get a foothold in the game at all.
"It's hard to fathom why, at the end of a long season, we ended up faltering when we've done good things all season. We've been disciplined and turned pressure into points all season – but we didn't apply any of that tonight."
Full story www.thisisbristol.co.uk
Luke Eves has become the first player to leave Bristol in the wake of their Championship final defeat.
The 21 year-old centre has penned a two year deal at Newcastle Falcons becoming the fourth Championship player to make the trek to Kingston Park this summer.
Full story www.newcastle-falcons.co.uk
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Championship Index 09/10
