EASTERN Rhinos booked their place in Rugby League's London Premier Division grand final following a hard-fought win 24-12 over West Warriors.

The Colchester-based side prevailed in a physical battle and will now face last year’s National Champions South West London Chargers in the final at Wasps RUFC training ground, West London tomorrow at 4pm.

Eastern Rhinos are forced into making four changes to the side that beat West Warriors. Fawaz Olabooye broke his nose and suffered concussion, influential pivot Adam Cook, Matt Smith and Brett Cuttbush are unavailable.

However, Coach Peter LeMarquand is confident the Rhinos can still win the title.

He said: “ Player availability is problem all teams face at this time of the year.

“However one of the reasons for our success this season is the size and strength of the squad we have built up at the Rhinos.

“We have some excellent players who were not available last week so I will still have some very difficult decisions to make in selecting the final seventeen.”

The winners will progress to the quarter-finals of the national Harry Jepson Trophy, which the Chargers have won for the last two seasons.

The Rhinos made the worst possible start after after Warriors’ Luke Laban touched down in the corner for a 4-0 lead, inside two minutes.

The Rhinos responded and in the 16th minute, Adam Cook scored by the posts after some good pressure.

Peter Le Marquand converted, to secure a 6-4 lead. But the Warriors restored their advantage, just before half- time with an unconverted try.

Despite putting the Warriors under pressure for most of the third quarter, the Rhinos failed to convert territorial advantage into points.

But they went back in front in the 58th minute through a Jesse Walker try.

However, Warriors’ Casey Calder ran in a try from 30 metres to tie the scores.

But an Andrew Goldring 30-metre try, after good work by impressive centre Matt Smith put the Rhinos in front.

And in the final minute Walker scored an incredible try when he scored under the posts, after breaking away from the base of a scrum on the Rhinos 20 metre line and racing 80 metres, breaking tackles and handing off tacklers.

Peter LeMarquand converted both tries to round off Rhinos’ impressive win and book their place in the grand final.