Bath's Challenge Cup win a 'long time coming'

Club captain Ben Spencer (left) lifted Bath's first major trophy since 2008 as they won the European Challenge Cup

Captain Ben Spencer said it was inevitable Bath would at some point deliver a performance like the one that secured them the European Challenge Cup on Friday.

Bath overpowered French Top 14 side Lyon 34-12 to claim their first European trophy in 17 years at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

The Premiership leaders scored four tries and survived an ill-disciplined first half which saw two players sin-binned to comfortably beat their French opponents.

"Tonight's performance was something that's been building for a very long time," Spencer said.

"To see the hunger, to see the fight of this group was unbelievable.

"The way we managed the double yellow-card period to keep them out at the end of the first half, that's the fight and the spirit that we want to show each other."

Bath's last major piece of silverware came in the same European competition in 2008, when England head coach Steve Borthwick captained the club.

Bath remain in the running for a treble this season, following domestic success in February with the Premiership Rugby Cup and with them favourites to clinch the Premiership title.

Fly-half Finn Russell, whose signing in 2023 has been a major factor in Bath's transformation under head of rugby Johann van Graan, said the victory was a "big step in the right direction" of where the club want to get to.

Russell kicked four conversions and three penalties on the night to win his first major European title after twice losing Champions Cup finals with former club Racing 92.

"It's been a long time coming for Bath getting a title like this and as a group of players we've worked so hard to get where we are just now," Russell told BBC Points West.

"The work's not done yet, but we've worked so hard to get this trophy and it's amazing to have it."

Hooker and Bath stalwart Tom Dunn, who made his debut in 2012, said: "There's no end to this - we talk about continuous improvement.

"The hunger and fire has been there as long as I can remember. We've always wanted, we've always trained hard to create that."

Bath remain on course to win a treble this season as they head towards the end of the Premiership season

While Lyon scored first through Ethan Dumortier's try, Bath took the lead with Dunn and Max Ojomoh scores and navigated a tricky end to the first half when they were briefly reduced to 13 players following Sam Underhill and Will Muir's yellow cards.

Arno Botha pulled another back for Lyon but Bath ended the night comfortable winners as tries from Beno Obano and Spencer took them out of sight.

Lyon coach Karim Ghezal said one of Bath's yellow cards was "rather dodgy" but that he would not complain about refereeing.

"We didn't score when they were down to 13. They had two yellow cards," he said.

"Bath is a very strong team and we knew they were very effective so we need to face the facts."

Bath now face another huge two weeks as the Premiership season reaches its conclusion.

They travel to Saracens on Saturday, 31 May for the final round of the competition, before a home semi-final at the Recreation Ground on Friday, 6 June for a place in the Twickenham final.

Van Graan said the Challenge Cup trophy was a credit to every player a staff member involved at the club, and that they are enjoying their "journey" together.

"We'll enjoy [Friday], we'll enjoy what this trophy represents - incredible hard work by a lot of people - and then we'll come back on Tuesday morning and we'll move on again," Van Graan said.

"We're not chasing anything, we are enjoying our journey together."

Additional reporting by Alistair Durden.