Bristol face Doncaster in Championship final

4:13 PM GMT

Bristol will play Doncaster Knights in the Greene King IPA Championship playoff final with the winner securing a spot in the Aviva Premiership.

Andy Robinson's Bristol booked their place thanks to a 45-19 win over Bedford at Ashton Gate which saw them secure a 90-35 aggregate triumph over the two legs. Doncaster went through after beating Yorkshire Carnegie 44-34 across their pair of matches.

Bedford's defeat means London Irish will be in English rugby's second tier next season with both Bristol and Doncaster passing the minimum standards criteria required for promotion.

For Bristol, it will be their third playoff final in as many years as they look to secure promotion having last played in the top flight in 2009. They were overwhelming favourites heading into the second leg of their game against the Blues having won at Bedford last weekend 45-16 and they lived up to the billing with a 45-19 triumph at their Ashton Gate home.

But Bristol were caught cold in the opening exchanges when Bedford's Josh Buggea crossed the line only for Tom Varndell to hold him up but the hosts soon got on the scoreboard when Martin Roberts crossed after five minutes. Nick Koster scored soon after but Bristol were then reduced to 13 men with Callum Sheedy and Koster sin-binned, with the latter offence resulting in a Bedford penalty try after their rolling maul was illegally pulled down.

Despite the numerical advantage, Bedford could only score once through Dean Adamson while Bristol had their men in the sin-bin and the hosts also struck with Roberts grabbing a second.

The two sides continued to exchange tries with Ben Mosses striking for Bristol and Paul Tupai crossing for Bedford on the stroke of half-time with the score 31-19 to the hosts.

Come the second half, Bedford started better than the hosts and Bristol were again issued a yellow card when Luke Arscott was sin-binned on the 51st minute for a deliberate knock-on. But the second half remained pointless until the 73rd minute when Varndell scored and Andy Uren followed up with another to give Bristol their commanding win.

In the other semifinal, Doncaster Knights booked their spot in the playoff final despite losing the second leg 17-14 to Yorkshire Carnegie at their Castle Park ground.

The Knights went through 44-34 on aggregate aided by their 30-17 win at Headingley last weekend. In Sunday's second leg, Declan Cusack slotted nine points from the tee and Will Hurrell scored a try for the hosts while Yorkshire responded with a penalty try and scores from Andy Saull and Jonah Holmes.

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Bristol face Doncaster in Championship final