Business as usual for Chiefs after early Tigers roar
EXETER, most pundits’ champions elect, took a little while to warm to their task but normal service was soon resumed at Sandy Park where they collected another bonus point win en route to their inevitable place in the play-offs.
Tigers didn’t make life easy for them though and both new coach Steve Borthwick and director of rugby Geordan Murphy will find encouragement in strong opening and closing quarters from their team.
The visitors certainly started sharply with a penalty and smartly taken dropped goal from the excellent George Ford and a quickly-taken tap-and-go penalty from Ben Youngs that should possibly have resulted in another score.
Exeter were rattled a little by the intensity of Tigers’ start but having weathered that early storm quickly asserted themselves with the visitors soon running into penalty trouble at the breakdown and elsewhere.
As Chiefs began to turn the screw, Tigers conceded 16 penalties on the bounce either side of half-time and you cannot win a rugby game with adverse stats like that.
They can have few complaints. Referee Tom Foley was strict at the breakdown – as directed – but consistent, and veered towards generosity by only reverting to a yellow card at the end of that run.
In total he pinged Leicester
on 22 occasions and Exeter 13 times which sounds horrific but actually the match was still a decent spectacle.
There was much positive intent from both sides and as they get used to the stricter interpretations surrounding the jackal and side entry, that number of penalties conceded will decline markedly.
Having weathered the early Tigers storm, Chiefs went to work impressively.
Their first score was a trademark short range effort with big Dave Ewers battering his way over after man-of-the-match Luke Cowan-Dickie had taken a quick tap and go penalty but their second, just before half time, was an absolute cracker from Stuart Hogg.
The Scotland full-back showed real gas to take the try well but it was the crispest of passing inside him that really made the score with Ollie Devoto, Joe Simmonds and Ollie Woodburn all involved before the latter released Hogg with a nicely timed pass.
Leading 12-6 at half-time you sensed Chiefs would look to secure the bonus point quickly and that’s exactly what they did. Cowan-Dickie took another quick-tapped penalty and scrambled over while some Tigers players were still remonstrating to the ref and then, in the 52nd minute, Sam Simmonds touched down from a lineout rumble although the official verdict was a penalty try.
It might have got nasty for Tigers at this stage – especially as they were down to 14 men after a yellow card to Jordan Taufua for infringing at the breakdown, but with Ford clearing massivley and buying his side time, they showed plenty of spirit.
They even dished out a bit of Chiefs’ own medicine by rumbling over from a lineout with Exeter lock Johnny Hill earning ten minutes in the bin for bringing down the maul.