Hooker Walker in at double as Gloucester battle past Exeter
As dress rehearsals go for the Heineken Champions Cup roundof-16 matches, this was a bit of a curate’s egg performance from both sides.
Rob Baxter protected his frontline Exeter team ahead of the Chiefs’ clash with Lyon next weekend while Gloucester had to go full-bore to end a run of two defeats. The Cherry and Whites did at least gain some confidence before they welcome La Rochelle to Kingsholm with only their fourth Gallagher Premiership win of the season.
La Rochelle will be a different ball game to facing Exeter’s second string, but at least their second-half showing will have got them in the right frame of mind after they sealed a last-gasp bonus point.
“We are double champions and we set high standards. We made basic mistakes and these players need to realise they cannot continue to do that,” said Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby. “They will be hurting after this, but I wasn’t going to tap them on the back and tell them to enjoy a beer on the bus back home because we didn’t win an important rugby match. That would have been doing them a disservice because it wasn’t good enough.”
Gloucester knew this was a chance to snatch a rare win against the division’s best side and went off like the clappers, kicking an early penalty to the corner and going for the pushover try. It did not come off the first time, but given a second bite of the cherry after Jonny May had been denied in the left corner, they drove hooker Henry Walker over. George Barton added the extras and it was the perfect start for the down-on-their-luck home side.
That should have set the tone, but the Chiefs have not risen to the heights of being European champions by accident. They hit back almost immediately with a wonder try from full-back Josh Hodge who returned a poor box kick by Willi
Heinz with 70 metres of interest. There was no conversion to match from Harvey Skinner, but he soon made amends with a simple penalty and then converted a try scored by Dom Armand.
To make matters worse for frustrated Gloucester head coach George Skivington, his side went down to 14 men when the officials reviewed a seat-belt tackle by Billy Twelvetrees on Hodge. The irony was with fewer men they enjoyed a purple patch and when the former England centre returned to the action, it was after Walker had bagged a second pushover try which Barton improved to make it a one-point game at the break.
The first score of the second half came from the home side’s replacement scrum-half Charlie Chapman. He was in the right place at the right time at the feet of his rampaging forwards to pick up and scamper over. Barton added the conversion and then kicked a penalty to stretch the lead to nine points on the hour mark. Exeter emptied their bench to try to hit back.
Skinner was wide with a penalty shot 35 metres from the posts and then Stu Townsend had a try ruled out by the TMO. The Chiefs still picked up their first points of the second half with a penalty from Skinner for an earlier infringement.
It put Gloucester on edge with six to go. They managed the closing stages pretty well, turning a scrum penalty into a series of driving rucks that eventually ended with an inevitable penalty in the Chiefs’ 22 and earned Alfie Petch a yellow card. Up stepped Barton and there was even time for a bonus-point flourish with a penalty try from a mass driving maul that was pulled down illegally. Tom Price saw yellow for his crime.
Skivington said: “There is loads of growth to come and I think we left a few tries out there as well. We are building nicely.”