England prop Harry Williams got Exeter Chiefs up and running as they blew Northampton Saints away 42-12 to reach their fourth successive Premiership Rugby final.
Chiefs will now face reigning champions Saracens in the final at Twickenham after Mark McCall’s side defeated Gloucester Rugby in their semi-final earlier in the day.
Williams made two appearances in Eddie Jones’ 2019 Guinness Six Nations side in the victory over Ireland at the Aviva Stadium and the defeat to Wales at Principality Stadium.
And he gave Chiefs a dream start as they took a 5-0 lead against Saints at Sandy Park.
The tighthead prop powered his way over from short range after teammate Dave Ewers worked his way well to just short of the line.
Minutes later, Joe Simmonds added a second when he was found in space and dummied his way through the Saints defence to score by the posts.
The visitors fought back before half-time when they were first awarded a penalty try by the TMO, with Exeter winger Tom O’Flaherty given a yellow card as a result.
Ahsee Tuala then reduced the arrears to two points when he was well found by Rory Hutchinson’s acrobatic flick out of the back of his hand.
After the break, a three-minute blitz put the hosts in control as lock Dave Dennis powered over before a superb driving solo effort from O’Flaherty added further points.
Exeter confirmed the result when England international Sam Simmonds continued his return from injury by coming off the bench to score following another sustained attack.
There was just time for Sam Hill to put the cherry on the cake with a sixth try, continuing Exeter’s run of only two defeats at Sandy Park since February 2018.
In the day’s earlier semi-final battle at Allianz Park, England captain Owen Farrell kicked eight points to lead Saracens to a commanding 44-19 win over Gloucester.
England’s Ben Morgan went over early on for Gloucester after a superb six-pass move involving Danny Cipriani but Saracens fought back strongly.
The hosts responded within two minutes as Scotland international Sean Maitland gathered Farrell’s grubber kick to go over before Ben Spencer, who made his Guinness Six Nations debut in this year’s thrilling draw with Scotland, added another try after a brilliant 40-metre break.
Saracens scored again when Wales star Liam Williams coasted into the corner while Nick Tompkins added a second-half hat-trick to confirm the result.
Front-row replacement Ruan Dreyer and Lewis Ludlow got tries back but the result was never in doubt as the defending champions booked their place in the Twickenham showpiece.
