An emotional Steve Borthwick hugged his team mates in a bitter-sweet moment as he finally savoured victory in a Cup Final whilst knowing next season he'll not have the joy of wearing the Blue, Black and White of Bath Rugby. Last year's angry outburst following defeat to Clermont Auvergne was replaced by tears of joy as the Bath skipper gave a Man of the Match performance against Worcester.

After suffering at the hands of teams playing to the limit of the law in recent weeks Bath showed a harder edge which resulted in the Worcester fans booing the officials at the end of the game. How Lee Mears wasn't sin-binned during the second half for pulling a player back by his shirt I'll never know. I spotted this from behind the posts yet the touch-judge, who was parallel to the play, couldn't spot the infringement. Thank God for blind officials!

Bath continued their recent form of taking control of the early part of a match without putting points on the board. Olly Barkley had an opportunity to open Bath's account after just three minutes but failed to slot home what should have been an easy score for such an accomplished player. Memories of his early misses last week at Wasps must have flashed through the mind of this talented kicker. Barkley had to wait another twelve minutes to rectify his mistake and a great Bathonian sigh could be heard as Bath took a 3-0 lead.

Some ten minutes later Worcester equalised through a simple Drahm penalty after Lee Mears had overthrown at a defensive lineout and Steve Borthwick infringed as he tried to tidy up the mess. It was ironic that Bath should conceded this error given their dominance in the lineout, stealing a handful of Worcester throws.

Bath finally broke through for a try on the half-hour after some superb ball handling from Banahan, Mears and James saw Johnny Fantastic drive to the line and slide in for the score.

Five minutes later Bath scored their second try after once again showing speed of legs, hands and brain. Olly Barkley fed Maddock with a testing looped pass and the New Zealander had to act quickly to feed Abendanon, just before he was shoved in to touch, but the England full-back was able to cross the Worcester goal-line for a 15-3 lead. A final minute Drahm penalty ensured Worcester entered the break within touching distance of Bath.

The second half saw Worcester place Bath under much more pressure but Bath managed to stop the Warriors crossing their goal line until Delport scored in the final minute, by which time penalties from Barkley and James and a rare Barkley drop-goal had sealed victory.

The celebrations started soon after with Bath players hugging one another, knowing this could be the start of something really big and wanting to be part of it. I can't believe that either Barkley or Borthwick won't have had second thoughts over recent weeks as they leave what is clearly a close knit family down at the Rec. It was great to see Zac Feaunati and Nick Walshe getting a few moments of game time as they too move away from Bath.

In recent years we've ended the season thinking about what might have been, today we witnessed what has been - a Cup Final victory.

Come on you Bathhhhh!

Match day photos can be found here.

Bath: Abendanon; Maddock, Crockett, Barkley, Banahan; James, Claassens; Flatman, Mears, Stevens, Borthwick (c), Grewcock, Faamatuainu, Lipman, Browne.
Replacements: Dixon, Bell, Short, Feaunati, Walshe, Berne, Cheeseman.

Worcester: Delport; Garvey, Rasmussen, Tuitupou, Benjamin; Drahm, Powell; Windo, Lutui, Taumoepeau, Rawlinson, Gillies, Hickey, Sanderson (capt), Horstmann.
Replacements: Horsman, Mullan, Bowley, Talei, Powell, Carlisle, Gear.

Referee: Christophe Berdos

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