| Gloucester-Hartpury: (14) 21 |
| Tries: Beckett, Jones, Lund Cons: Sing 3 |
| Bristol: (0) 12 |
| Tries: Davies 2 Cons: Snowsill |
Gloucester-Hartpury reached their first Premier 15s final, holding off a resurgent Bristol at Kingsholm.
Sarah Beckett put the hosts ahead after just two minutes and Kelsey Jones added a second try before half-time.
Bristol responded with two Lark Davies tries after the break and Elinor Snowsill’s unsuccessful second conversion left them trailing 14-12.
Eventually, Gloucester-Hartpury took control once more as Rachel Lund scored with 12 minutes remaining.
Sunday’s semi-final between Exeter and Saracens at Sandy Park is a repeat of the 2022 final, which Sarries won to claim a third Premier 15s title.
Gloucester-Hartpury will face the winner of that match on 24 June at Kingsholm, which was announced as the host stadium in February.
“You can see the emotions, what it means to every one of us,” player of the match Alex Matthews said.
“We came here for a purpose – we want to go and win it. We just had to stay patient and break them down eventually.”
Gloucester recover from second-half scare
The home crowd was joyful in the sunshine from the off as Beckett made a break and scored the hosts’ opener.
After a period of pressure, a powerful home pack rolled a maul across the tryline for Wales hooker Jones’ score.
Bristol were revived after the break and Davies scored twice in driving mauls – the second coming after Phoebe Murray gathered a kick and tore up the field to put her team in a perfect position.
Snowsill narrowly missed the conversion that would have tied the scores at 14-14 and Gloucester-Hartpury shut down the comeback soon after.
Bethan Lewis’ try was ruled out because of an earlier Emma Sing knock-on, but the hosts built through the phases again and Lund had plenty of space to score the try that secured victory.
