Clifton 24 Sheffield Tigers 15

Clifton will grace the home of English rugby for the first time in their 137 year history after beating a hard working Sheffield Tigers outfit in the Intermediate Cup semi-finals.

But they were hanging on at the end, having seen second row Darren Barry sent to the sin bin and conceded a try to No 8 Nick Pearson late on.

The Henbury side also had to endure eight minutes of injury time before they could celebrate an appearance at Twickenham.

Player-coach John Barnes kicked Clifton ahead with a penalty on nine minutes and two minutes later centre Steve Leonard touched down following a grubber kick by No 8 John Levis. Barnes converted.

Charles Spon-Smith replied with a penalty but Clifton then stepped up a gear.

They blew several chances before Levis picked up from the base of the scrum, fed scrum-half Dan Frost and Rob Viol dived over in the corner on 31 minutes. Barnes converted.

However, Sheffield gave themselves hope by scoring on the stroke of half time when full-back Jimmy Pearson went over following a good backs move.

Nine minutes after the break, former Bristol Rugby and England Under-21 prop Chris Rowlands crashed over from short range, Barnes conversion taking Clifton 24-8 ahead.

But fatigue started to grip the hosts. They were guilty of making mistakes and started giving away penalties.

Barry, who this week signed a senior contract with Bristol for next season, was sent to the sin bin on 71 minutes for killing the ball and two minutes later Nick Pearson went over. Spon-Smith converted.

But although they threatened to add further scores, Sheffield were forced to attack from deep and were unable to break through the well marshalled Clifton defence with Levis and flanker Vince Murrell leading the tackling.

Clifton: D Rees; R Viol, S Leonard, D Butler, A Allison; J Barnes, D Frost (capt), L Glass, S Wilkes, C Rowland, P Reid, D Barry, V Murrell, P Schmidt, J Levis. Reps: H Mace, R Walker, A Edwards, R White, G Hardy, S Kent, C Broaders