WORCESTER Warriors reached a top flight final for the first time in 13 years as they beat Gloucester at Kingsholm 39-25 in their Premiership Rugby Cup semi-final.
It was also the first win at Kingsholm in 12 years as Warriors fought back from 18-7 down in the first-half to win with room to spare to book their place in the final against London Irish.
Scrum-half Gareth Simpson was the star of the show as he scored two and set one up, with Duhan van der Merwe, Niall Annett and Tom Howe also crossing the line.
Gloucester had scored through cameron Jordan and Jake Morris to lead 18-14 at half-time and a try from Arthur Clark late on almost threatened a comeback but Annett crossed in the final minutes to secure the win.
Despite their being a lot less experience in the Gloucester side for the game, it was the hosts who looked the more cohesive side in the first-half.
George Barton was orchestrating things nicely from fly-half and his penalty in front of the posts put the hosts ahead.
Then came the first moment of brilliance from Warriors' Simpson as his chip and chase over the Gloucester defence saw him set Tom Howe free down the right and the winger finished acrobatically in the corner to give Worcester the lead.
But Gloucester came back and scored two tries of their own as they began to build a little lead.
First Cameron Jordan powered over the line after 20 minutes before winger Jake Morris crossed just after the half-hour mark.
At 18-7 the hosts were in control but Simpson was not done for the half just yet and he scampered round the blindside and found room down the left to cross in the corner just a couple of moments before half-time to reduce the lead to four points at 18-14.
Simpson was standing out and it would take just nine minutes for the scrum-half to again be involved after the break as a move down the left saw Atkinson put van der Merwe into space and he passed inside to the tracking run of Simpson and the lively nine went in under the posts.
The conversion drifted wide from Smith but the tide had turned.
Having been a surprise inclusion to the side, winger Duhan van der Merwe announced himself to the game in style as he received a set-piece ball 20 metres out before running a direct line straight over the line, with Gloucester defenders hanging off him.
Worcester had one foot in the final at this point but just before the final quarter, the hosts cracked and Henry walker was sent to the bin for pulling down a driving maul on his own line, giving away a penalty try in the process.
At 18-31, replacement Jamie Shillcock opted for the posts to stretch the lead heading towards the final ten minutes.
Clark did scramble over to give some hope at 25-34 but a flowing Worcester move ended with hooker Annett diving over in front of a large group of Worcester supporters to seal the deal.
Players were joined by fans and travelling squad members on the touchline to celebrate as Worcester made history.
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