RICHARD Hill felt ‘justice had been done’ after Worcester Warriors were rightly crowned victors of the Championship, having jumped through the final hoop of a drawn-out campaign.

The two-legged triumph over Cornish Pirates saw Worcester win their 30th league match out of 31 this term to claim the promotion to the Premiership their all-conquering season richly deserves.

The Sixways head coach said: “Overall, we were the best side in the league, so justice has been done, but it was still scary.

“There are so many pitfalls you can slip up on. It is not an easy format to play in, it is not an easy league to get out of and it is getting harder every year.

“The incentive to us was that we didn’t want to be in this league again next season — the longer you’re in it, the harder it becomes to get out.

“I was a little relaxed when we were three tries to nil up and I think some of the players were too, but Pirates came back.

“They are a very good side and every time we’ve played against them they’ve been a threat to us. They made it very uncomfortable in the last quarter-of-an-hour.

“I think the best two teams played in the final and good luck to Leeds next year, because this is a hard division to get out of — I’m glad we have gone up though. Cornish Pirates will without doubt be one of the favourites next season because they are a very good side.”

Hill was full of praise for the 12,024 capacity Sixways crowd who created a tremendous atmosphere to roar Warriors back to the Premiership.

He added: “It was a superb atmosphere and the players rose to the occasion, so I’m just delighted for everyone. Sixways was rocking, it really was, and that makes you look forward to next year.

“The crowd was tremendous and the stadium was vibrating at times — it was fantastic — and it won’t be easy for some of the Premiership clubs to come here next season.

“Next season will be tough and we’ve got some work to do over the summer — the Premiership is an uncompromising league.

“However, the confidence the players will have got from winning constantly this season will be important. Losing becomes a habit — as does winning — so they need to bottle up the confidence from this season and the way the crowd cheered them at the end.

“We will go up on a high as the likes of Northampton and Harlequins have done after going through a successful season.”