Newcastle Falcons secured their return to the top flight of English rugby last night s they backed up last week's 18-9 away victory over Bedford Blues in the first leg of the RFU Championship final with a 31-24 win in the return leg at Kingston Park.

Newcastle's hero of the evening was Jimmy Gopperth, their Leinster-bound fly-half, who put in a superb display, topped with the 21 points he claimed from seven penalties. Bizarrely, however, Gopperth was unable to convert either of the two tries Newcastle collected through Ryan Shortland and Alex Tait.

With four Scots in their starting lineup – Rory Lawson, Grant Shiells, Scott MacLeod and Ally Hogg – and with Fraser McKenzie, Scott Lawson and Mike Blair set to join the club over the summer, the Falcons will provide a significant Scottish presence in the Aviva Premiership next season.

The result is likely to be greeted with relief by he RFU, who feared another legal challenge along the one mounted by London Welsh last season had Bedford put themselves in pole position for promotion. Bedford's Goldington Road ground had been declared unfit for Premiership rugby, but there had been a suggestion that the club might explore other legal avenues to play at that level.

Newcaste's win also means a return to the top flight for Dean Richards, four years on from the 'Bloodgate' scandal that brought him a three-year ban. However, in his hour of triumph, Richards was critical of the playoff system that they had to go through after dominating the regular season and winning 21 of their 22 games.

"I think it is a rotten way to go up," said Richards. "I thought the play-off games were good games and I enjoyed them, but it's like being in purgatory for two months.

"You compete well throughout the season and you get your building blocks in place and your commercial stuff in place, to have to go through this doesn't seem quite right.

It's nice to win and to achieve something and hopefully we can carry on improving next season. I feel relief only from the point of view that the whole system seems unjust; it sets people up to fall rather than rewarding people for building things.

"I'm not going to make any predictions for next season. I'm just glad that we've achieved what we set out to achieve."