Johann van Graan's Bath clinch Challenge Cup trophy with dominant win over Lyon

Although the French outfit opened the scoring through Ethan Dumortier, Bath dominated the next 20 minutes, touching down twice through Tom Dunn and Max Ojomoh for a 17-5 lead.

In the second half, Lyon would cross the whitewash first in the half via Arno Botha, but Johann van Graan's men dominated the rest of the match with Beno Obano and Ben Spencer tries, allied by the accurate kicking of Finn Russell, taking them to the Challenge Cup trophy.

Bath have been the dominant team in England's top tier this season under South African coach Van Graan and went into the final as favourites, but Lyon started well and they deserved the lead given to them by Dumortier after the France international did exceptionally well to keep his foot off the touchline and touch down.

The Englishmen responded when they exerted some pressure and it yielded a penalty opportunity, resulting in Russell, who was controlled throughout, reducing the arrears off the tee.

That provided the spark Bath needed and they started creating opportunities with the excellent Ojomoh to the fore. The centre showed his class by sending Will Butt through a hole and, although the attack broke down, they kept their foot on Lyon's throat.

They went over twice in five minutes - both from close range - as Dunn and the aforementioned Ojomoh crossed the whitewash to give Bath a 17-5 advantage.

Then came the controversy. Sam Underhill found himself in hot water after making contact with the head of Davit Niniashvili, but it was not deemed a red card offence. The flanker was duly sin-binned and he was soon followed on the naughty step by Will Muir's reckless tackle in the air.

However, the French outfit failed to take advantage of the extra men, having a try ruled out for Dylan Cretin stupidly blocking Tom Dunn to deny Dumortier another try.

It meant Bath retained their 12-point buffer and they would build on that at the start of the second period when Russell added a penalty.

To Lyon's credit, they would fight back and reduced the arrears immediately through Botha, but their first-half wastefulness would ultimately cost them. They left themselves with too much to do and Bath were ultimately too strong a side to let them off the hook.

Obano demonstrated their dominance by crossing the whitewash from close range before they secured the win with a well-worked score.

They went to the right off a scrum as Ojomoh made inroads before going back the other way where Tom de Glanville was lurking. The fullback dummied and sped through a gap, giving Spencer the simple task of going over unopposed to make sure of the victory.

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