March toward victory

CHIEFS TAKE ROUNDABOUT ROUTE TO POOL WIN

despite their delayed arrival. Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “There was a march in the city centre where our hotel was and the roads were being shut around us.

“The bus ended up going through a couple of housing estates. We were wondering if we’d ever come out.

“Everything was a challenge this week with players dropping out but we’ve dealt with it, stuck at it and we won the pool – something we have never achieved before.

“This season in the Heineken Cup we have shown a lot of character in every game and this feels like a winning draw.”

Glasgow were fortunate not to have captain Callum Gibbins sent off for an elbow to the head of Jacques Vermeulen in the 25th minute as he drove into a ruck with referee Romain Poite settling for a yellow.

Exeter made the home side pay though with two of their trademark close-range tries from Matt Kvesic (left) and Vermeulen, while Gibbins was on the naughty step, but were still only able to go into half-time level at 24-24.

Glasgow’s inventive play delivered three tries, the first from Tommy Seymour in the opening minute, then one for centre Huw Jones and – after a breakaway score from Exeter scrum-half Nic White – a cracker on half-time from George Horne.

When Glasgow hooker Fraser Brown was sin-binned on 53 minutes there was another short-range try for Kvesic. That gave Exeter a bonus point to confirm their last-eight place.

But Glasgow weren’t finished, and when replacement Niko Matawalu was rumbled over Adam Hastings’ touchline conversion tied the game again.

Sam Johnson thought he had won it for Glasgow but his try was scrubbed after a TMO for a forward pass by Hastings.