I DON’T know about you, but my finger nails might take some time to grow back.

For the neutral, Sunday’s 23-22 victory over Bedford Blues in the Championship semi-final would have been one of the most entertaining sporting spectacles for a long time.

For those involved with the two clubs, it was probably the most nerve-racking, exciting, turbulent rollercoaster ride we will hopefully ever have to experience.

But, we have done it — we are in the final. Just 160 minutes of rugby and the Cornish Pirates lie between us achieving our goal of returning to the Premiership.

Having cooled down sufficiently over the last couple of days and reviewed the game, it is clear to see we really underperformed.

It was just one of those days where things didn’t click — dependable players all made uncharacteristic errors on the same day.

We gave away several penalties early on through ill discipline and made almost as many mistakes in the first-half as we would in an average game.

Because of all these variables, we found ourselves 16-0 down in arguably the biggest game the club has ever had.

Bedford showed us how to play semi-final rugby in the first 20 minutes and capitalised on our mistakes. We compounded our errors further through good pressure from the Blues, something we must do to the Pirates on May 11 and 18.

We managed to begin building our innings and settled the nerves through some good phase play, once again showing how tough teams find it to defend against us when we look after the ball and play multi-phase.

Eventually, we found ourselves in relatively warmer water by half-time, trailing 19-13.

The boys pulled together during the interval and looked to put things right in the second-half. Kai Horstmann and Andy Goode spoke to rally the troops and focus the guys on where we needed to improve.

Bedford again fronted up in the second-half superbly well and they deserve huge credit for the way they played.

When we found ourselves trailing by six points, we knew what was required to keep this campaign alive. We could call on our experience from all those games earlier in the season where we played poorly yet still came from behind to win — Doncaster at home and Bristol and Pirates away to name a few.

We knew we had the resolve and the character to find seven points.

Winning on Sunday, though breath-takingly too close, was down to these experiences along with the massive team spirit we have at Worcester.

Well done boys and well done Joe Carlisle — that match-winning conversion showed incredible bottle!

As many people predicted right at the start of the season, it is Worcester versus Cornish Pirates to decide the title. Having watched the Pirates win their semi-final against London Welsh after our game on Sunday, I feel the two best teams have indeed reached the final.

It is our job now to go down to the Mennaye and win again, something only we have managed to do this season.

We cannot afford another poor game — now is the time for the 80 minute performance we have searched for all season.

This week, we will be training hard on exactly how we want to play against this tough opponent.

It promises to be an exciting couple of weeks and the guys are buzzing at the chance of getting promoted.

Yes, the Championship format isn’t ideal, but there are not many other competitions in the world that provide as much excitement.

I hope you can join us for the last two games of the season, they will be intense, that I can promise.