Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio 5 Live:

"My family and my faith are very important to me, I'm very thankful for days like this.

"This group of players and staff have made a difference to the lives of the people of Bath.

"We've put belief and pride back into the jersey. I saw them belonging to an incredible club today and we've created a journey thats gone from hope to belief, and the belief is back in Bath Rugby.

"This was an incredible game of rugby so credit to Sale, they're gracious in defeat.

"What a place to play rugby The Rec was rocking today."

Bath fly-half Finn Russell said:

"When I signed here I didn't think I'd get to a final in the first season so that's brilliant but we've not achieved our goal yet, our goal is to win the Premiership so we've put ourselves in a great position to do that.

"The work starts now and we've got to perform next weekend better than we did today to get the win."

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson said:

"[I feel] numb, that it's ended prematurely and frustrated because we're victims of our own demise today.

"They're a special group and it's been a pretty special season.

"We just didn't seem to have the composure to keep the pressure on them every time we turned the tide.

"We've grown a good squad here over the last three years and clearly we've got some growing to do but I'm really glad to be part of it."

Sale fly-half George Ford said:

"It's always disappointing when you lose a semi-final and the feeling is we could have helped ourselves a lot more than we did.

"We felt good on the field, we didnt feel like we were running out of steam or anything like that.

"It's one we'll take on the chin, lick our wounds, have the summer off and come back better."