Premiership Rugby Cup: Gloucester 17-14 Exeter Chiefs - hosts hold off Chiefs comeback to reach final

A strong first-half performance from Gloucester was just enough as they held off Exeter's spirited comeback to reach the Premiership Rugby Cup final.

Zach Mercer set up Lewis Ludlow for the Cherry and Whites' opening try and Max Llewellyn crossed soon after.

Winger Josh Hathaway added a third to put the hosts 17-0 up at the break.

Improved Exeter replied in the second half through Jacques Vermeulen and Ross Vintcent to make it 17-14 in the last 10 minutes, but Gloucester held on.

George Skivington's men topped their pool with five wins out of five and will take their 100% record in the competition into the final on 15 March against the winner of the second semi-final between Championship side Ealing Trailfinders and Leicester Tigers on Sunday (15:00 GMT).

Gloucester put their poor league season, which has seen them win just three of 12 games, to one side to defeat defending champions Exeter, who beat London Irish in last season's final.

In front of a characteristically fired-up Kingsholm crowd, the home side started on the front foot and after fly-half George Barton missed a simple penalty, they took the lead when Mercer exploited space following a turnover before offloading for skipper Ludlow to go over the tryline.

It remained 5-0 as Barton miscued the conversion but the hosts stayed well on top and a good pass from scrum-half Caolan Englefield sent Llewellyn through a gap in the Chiefs defence to go under the posts after 12 minutes.

Barton made no mistake this time to give Gloucester a deserved 12-0 lead.

It took Exeter almost 20 minutes to threaten the Gloucester tryline and when they did begin to build their first period of concerted pressure, a Tom Cairns knock-on let the hosts off the hook.

The excellent Mercer made them pay shortly after half an hour with an excellent burst upfield and kick in behind for Hathaway to latch on to and put Gloucester firmly in control.

The Chiefs thought they had finally got on the scoresheet on the stroke of half-time only for Scott Sio to be denied after a check by TMO Ian Tempest, with the Australia international prop adjudged to have lost control of the ball as he reached for the line.

Exeter showed much more attacking intent when they came out for the second period, although strong home defence meant it took until the hour mark for them to score their first try through a powerful carry from Vermeulen.

Harvey Skinner kicked the conversion to make it 17-7 with just under 20 minutes remaining and substitute Vintcent then crossed from close range, with Skinner adding the extras again to close the gap to just three points in the 67th minute.

There were a few nervy moments for the Kingsholm faithful but the hosts held on to put themselves in the frame for the first silverware of the season next month.

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"It's brilliant. We set out our marker early doors that we wanted to do something in this competition. I'm really pleased with the boys. In the first half we controlled things well. In the second half we could have controlled it better but Exeter threw everything at it.

"Lewis [Ludlow] is outstanding. There is a reason he's captain, he is mad keen to get to a final and get some silverware. Zach [Mercer] has a massive skillset and it was great to see him in full flow today.

"We expected a momentum shift in the second half but we probably gave them the opportunity.

"They're a quality team, they have won this competition and they know knockout rugby very well so I'm very proud of the boys for the way they hung in there and the way they managed the last 10 minutes of the game was brilliant."

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:

"We weren't great in the first half. The amount of mistakes we made, how slowly we looked to play, we were pausing at rucks, there wasn't a lot of chat going on there. There wasn't a lot of direction and we did some odd things in odd situations and put ourselves under pressure in a lot of ways.

"Looking at it now you can see the dangers that can happen with young players around distractions. That can happen with young guys. We were not quite aligned as we needed to be which has hurt us and has cost us the game.

"When we look back at how many try-scoring opportunities we have created and not taken we are going to be massively frustrated.

"But I'm really pleased with their response after half-time because they had a choice then of go home or turn up and play and they turned up and played and we did some good things."

Gloucester: Evans; Hearle, Llewellyn, Atkinson, Thorley; Barton, Englefield; Ford-Robinson, McGuigan, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Jordan, Ackermann, Ludlow, Mercer.

Replacements: Blake, Elrington, Knight, Clark, Clement, Chapman, Hillman-Cooper, Hathaway.

Exeter Chiefs: Hodge; Hammersley, Wimbush, Devoto, Relton; Skinner, Cairns; Sio, Norey, Painter, Tuima, Pearson, Vermeulen, Capstick, Fisilau.

Replacements: Yeandle, Southworth, Iosefa-Scott, Dunne, Vintcent, Becconsall, Jenkins, Rigg

Referee: Christophe Ridley