No one, it is fair to say, embraces a 1.30 pm kick-off with quite such enthusiasm as London Irish. When the Exiles play in this vein there is no more enjoyable club to watch in Britain. The fact so few of their players were brought up here may irritate the purists but as long as the team keeps winning none of their supporters could care less. The collective heart is beating strongly and, on this performance, a first Twickenham final for 20 years is well within their cosmopolitan grasp.

The two New Zealand-born half backs Kevin Putt and Stephen Bachop played Gloucester like a well-tuned fiddle, seizing the territorial initiative and orchestrating a fluent all-round display which could easily have yielded far more than the two tries their team did collect.

Rob Gallacher, for crossing in the build-up, and Conor O'Shea, alleged not to have grounded the ball, both had potential scores ruled out, leaving Jarrod Cunningham to chip away at the premiership leaders with seven penalties, the last two in injurytime. Even then, London Irish were scarcely flattered by the final scoreline.

Scorers: London Irish: Tries: Campbell, Whetstone. Penalties: Cunningham 7. Drop goal: Bachop. Gloucester: Tries: Beim, Ewens. Conversion: Mannix. Penalties : Mannix 2.

London Irish: O'Shea (capt); Campbell, Whetstone, Todd, Cunningham; Bachop, Putt (S Hatley, 79min); N Hatley, Kirke, Halford, Harvey, Strudwick, Boer (Gabey, 73), Dawson (Mower, 72), Gallacher.

Gloucester: Tombs; Catling (Johnson, 60), Ewens, Yates (Hayward, 52), Beim; Mannix, Beck (Sanders,57); Woodman, McCarthy, Vickery, Fidler (Cornwell, 65), I Jones, Pearce (Ojomoh, 65), K Jones (capt), Paramore.

Referee: S Lander (Liverpool).