Chiefs rally to edge battle of title hopefuls
It could be considered bad timing for the Premiership’s top two teams to meet on an international weekend but as the defending champions snatched a late win to consolidate their lead, the occasion lacked nothing in intensity or excitement.
There was plenty of incentive for both sides, quite apart from finishing the day as Premiership leaders, with Saracens having suffered just their second loss of the competition thus far this season last weekend at Gloucester.
And of course there was the matter of the Chiefs and Saracens’ previous meeting being last season’s Premiership semi-final, when the Devon side also snatched the win at the death.
Having a point to prove from the defeat at Kingsholm, Saracens snapped into action after Exeter drew first blood via a penalty from the boot of fly-half Gareth Steenson, with two tries scored just five minutes apart from full-back Alex Goode and the seemingly ever-present, and ever classy, hooker Schalk Brits after nine and 14 minutes respectively.
Rob Baxter, Exeter director of rugby, noticed his players’ demeanours change after they were two tries down to the European champions.
“All of a sudden, everything you don’t want to happen against a team with the quality of Saracens happens but then, after that, the players on the pitch had a look at themselves and had a good word with each other.
“The second part of the first half was a lot better from us. We showed a lot more endeavour, we were a lot more physical, we controlled the ball better, tactically we were pretty sound and then I think we followed that through.
“At half-time, we had a group of players who had made their mind up that there was something for them in this game.”
From that point, Chiefs pressed and spent longs periods camped on the hosts’ line, with Saracens flyhalf, Max Malins, making his first Premiership start, playing his part to keep the score at 15-3 heading into half-time.
The 20-year-old Malins, who was stepping up in the absence of Owen Farrell and Alex Lozowski, was instrumental in the England Under20s run to the Junior World Cup final last summer.
Mark Mccall, Saracens director of rugby, although disappointed by the defeat, was pleased with the youngster’s performance. “He did well against difficult opposition for his first game, overall he did well.
“It was a very tough game; two good teams. But we were under more pressure than they were under for large parts of the game.”
Exeter were able to turn around a bright spell of Saracens attack, early in the second half, and got their first try via outside centre Ian Whitten.
Exeter stole the lead, with less than 10 minutes to go, via a try from replacement prop Moray Low, converted by Steenson.
Saracens battled in the dying moments, attempting to put together phases of attack, only to be thwarted by the Chiefs with Baxter concluding that beating a side so close in the Premiership race, and also getting out of jail, would be good for morale ahead of their West Country derby against Bath on Saturday.
“To take the win against a team very close to you in the league is very important. We’ve definitely got some stuff to work on this week. The players will be looking at the video tomorrow thinking, ‘Oh, I need to do that a bit better’, which is sometimes that kick in the pants you need without it being a big kick in the pants because we haven’t lost the game.” Dai Young, the Wasps director of rugby, thought his side were fortunate winners as they came back from 10-0 down to beat London Irish. In the final 25 minutes, Josh Bassett, Ashley Johnson and Nizaam Carr all crossed for Wasps with Jimmy Gopperth adding one conversion to secure the victory.
“We dodged a bullet today as the game could have gone either way but we had just enough in the locker to get over the line,” said Young. “We knew it would be tough here but if we had played one of the top sides today, we would have come unstuck as we were 10 per cent or 20 per cent below our recent performances.
“In the first half, we turned over too much ball and defended for far longer than we would have liked and our execution was pretty poor when they went down to 14 men.”
The Exiles’ defeat, their eighth in a row, keeps them at the foot of the Aviva Premiership and their chances of survival could hinge on their forthcoming trips to Gloucester and Worcester.
Alex Lewington scored their try, with Tommy Bell adding a conversion and two penalties to secure a valuable bonus point.
Nick Kennedy, London Irish director of rugby, said: “It was disappointing to lose again but it was still an improved performance as our defence contained one of the best attacking teams in the league for large parts of the game.”