Simmonds’ late score comes as a relief to Exeter
Exeter Chiefs had to call on all the qualities that won them the Aviva Premiership final last season to see off a fierce challenge from Glasgow in a pulsating European Champions Cup opener.
The Warriors arrived in Devon unbeaten in the Guinness Pro14 this season and having never lost to the Chiefs in the competition before. The physical intensity of the battle was breathtaking but a try two minutes from time by Sam Simmonds secured victory for Rob Baxter’s men.
It was a sixth of the season for the young England hopeful and was scored almost in exactly the same place as he dotted down the match-winning score in last May’s Premiership semi-final against Saracens.
The Chiefs missed out on the bonus point, to leave them second in the group behind Leinster, 24-17 winners over Montpellier earlier in the day, but they denied Glasgow anything from the match, despite the visitors’ considerable efforts, and that could prove crucial in what is likely to be an extremely tight Pool Two.
The win was a relief for Exeter, who are traditionally slow starters to their European campaigns. Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “We put the boys under a fair bit of pressure all week, saying we wanted to be ourselves and we wanted to show our true qualities in this first round at home, which is something we have not always managed to do.
“We then went points down early on, and it was impressive we didn’t get dented by that, and were able to move through it, and I have got to give the players great credit for doing exactly what we asked them to do, which was stick at it and be Exeter.
“We have come away with four very important points and we have denied Glasgow anything, which is almost doubly important.”
Commenting on a detached bicep injury that was picked up in training and ruled Australian international flanker Dave Dennis out of the game, Baxter said: “He has had an operation and is likely to be out for ten to 12 weeks.”
Glasgow head coach Dave Rennie, who was not able to comment on the severity of Scotland hooker Fraser Brown’s early knee injury, admitted he was frustrated not to come away with a win from Sandy Park, let alone failing to get a losing bonus point.
“Exeter played a lot of territory and choked us down our end of the field and came up with three tries going round the edge, and they did it well.
“It was an arm wrestle, and at 17-15 we had a couple of opportunities down in their half, but we just didn’t hang onto enough ball tonight and build enough pressure, and they shaded us in the kicking game and ended up winning the territory battle.”
Exeter looked like they were repeating that frustrating trait of sluggish starts to European campaigns as they fell 10-0 behind inside the first 11 minutes. A powerful scrum earned Finn Russell an early penalty, before the flyhalf delivered a pinpoint crossfield kick for his fellow Scotland international and British and Irish Lions winger Tommy Seymour to outjump Olly Woodburn and dot down, with Russell banging over a superb conversion from the touchline.
Exeter responded well, with a period of intense pressure eventually resulting in a try for England tight-head prop Harry Williams, with Steenson adding the simple conversion.
The Chiefs continued to take the game to Glasgow up front, with lock Jonny Hill getting over the line after another driven line-out to edge ahead in the contest, and Steenson converted, before adding a penalty early in the second half for Ruaridh Jackson’s high tackle on Lachie Turner to make it 17-10 to Exeter. Glasgow, however, delivered an instant riposte. An excellent piece of counter-rucking inside the Exeter half produced a blindside attack, and when Chiefs scrum-half Nic White failed to deal with the kick ahead, winger Lee Jones pounced to score.
Russell crucially missed the touchline conversion to keep Exeter’s noses in front, but opportunities to open up the gap, including a Steenson penalty that hit an upright, went begging until Simmonds sneaked over for a try two minutes from time, with Steenson’s conversion putting Glasgow out of bonus-point range.