London Welsh, the club relegated after one season in the Premiership, will face Bristol, a side who regularly look favourites for promotion before tripping up at the last hurdle, for a place in the top tier next season.

On Sunday a late penalty from the former Scotland fly-half Gordon Ross saw London Welsh into the final with a two-point aggregate win over Leeds Carnegie, another of those sides with a history of yo-yoing between divisions.

Leeds had held a seven-point advantage from the first leg of their Championship semi-final and extended that to 13 with just 12 minutes left to play. However, Seb Stegmann went over for a converted try in the 68th minute and when Ollie Stedman crossed three minutes later London Welsh led 26-20 on the day, but trailed by just a single point on aggregate, before Leeds were undermined by one of their former players.

Ross, who was with Leeds from 2002‑06 and had a habit of pulling rabbits out of the hat, then landed the winning penalty two minutes from time to make it 29-20 on the day and 60-58 on aggregate to the team whose time in the Premiership was seriously undermined by docked points for playing an unregistered player.

The side coached by Justin Burnell will play Bristol over two legs, the first in nine days at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford. Bristol avoided another year of embarrassment by coming from behind to beat Rotherham 22-11, making the aggregate score 39-25.

Bristol, who have spent heavily anticipating a return to the Premiership, had only a three-point lead after the first leg and trailed by eight points, with one man in the sin-bin, before scoring 19 in the second half, inspired by the former Wales captain Ryan Jones, making his debut after being released early by the Ospreys.

Nicky Robinson, another Wales international, kicked 17 points as Bristol, who have gone through the season turning down chances for the boot, turned to pragmatism.