Woodburn and his hat-trick the salvation for ‘ordinary’ Chiefs
ROB Baxter admitted his Exeter Chiefs side looked “ordinary” as they completed their pre-season with a narrow win over the Dragons which saw Olly Woodburn bag a hat-trick.
Last season’s beaten Aviva Premiership finalists needed two second-half tries from Olly Woodburn to see off a spirited Dragons outfit.
Exeter conceded a try within the opening 90 seconds at Rodney Parade through Pat Howard and were fortunate to go into half-time on level terms, before showing their class in the final quarter.
Exeter travel to Wasps on the opening weekend of the new Premiership campaign and head coach Baxter insists his side will need to step up their intensity.
He said: “Great credit to the Dragons.Their intensity in the opening 25 minutes really knocked us out of our stride.
“We tried to play a bit of pretty rugby but it was loose and a bit messy.
“We looked a little bit ordinary and a bit unExeterlike. I told my players they looked unprepared and not in the mindset they needed to be.
“But we weathered the storm, got level at half-time and then managed to put some points on the board in the second-half.
“We’re going away to Wasps next week and this is what we’ll need to do – get a win on the road at a tough place to go.”
Wing Howard collected a cross-field kick to score the Dragons’ early try, converted by Nick Macleod, with a Carl Meyer penalty shortly after giving them a commanding lead.
The Chiefs responded with a first of three tries for wing Olly Woodburn, who finished well in the corner.
Macleod responded with a penalty for the home side but a Luke CowanDickie try and a Henry Slade penalty levelled the score at 13-13 at half-time.
Straight after the interval, the Chiefs’ summer signing Ollie Devoto rounded-off a swift counter attack with his first try for the club before two Woodburn tries in the final quarter secured a third pre-season victory for Baxter’s men.
The first one coming from a solo 60-metre run on the back off a brilliant pass from Macleaod while the second started with a turnover and a rampaging run from Damian Welch.
Dragons head coach Kingsley Jones said: “We’ve got to look at how we control the tempo for 80 minutes, we probably did it for 40 minutes here.
“With more games we’ll get better. It’s going to be hard for the players but I thought it was a good continuation of how we played against the Blues.
“I’d watched Exeter against the Scarlets and Ulster in pre-season and I was a bit nervous but we’ve got to play the best if we want to get better.”