CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE
AONE point game, eight minutes and 17 seconds remaining, down to 14 men with a giant Racing 92 side battering at the try line from close range sensing their wait for a first European title was about to come to an end.
That is the raging storm Exeter Chiefs weathered on Saturday night to hoist the Heineken Champions Cup aloft at Ashton Gate and rightfully put their name on the trophy alongside the great European teams of the past; Leicester Tigers, Toulouse, Wasps, Leinster, Toulon, and yes Saracens.
In the end the Devon side triumphed 31-27 thanks to tries from Luke Cowan-Dickie, Sam Simmonds, Harry Williams and Henry Slade with Joe Simmonds crucially landing five kicks from five to finish with 11 points.
But until the very last whistle the game was in the balance thanks to Irish full back Simon Zebo scoring a brace for his Parisian side along with tries from Juan Imhoff and Camille Chat.
While Chiefs director of rugby Rob
Baxter was disappointed with the performance of his side post match, Exeter were world class in their defence in those closing stages without Tomas Francis who was shown yellow by referee Nigel Owens for an intentional knock on as Maxime Machenaud looked to get an offload away following a break to take him deep inside the opposition 22.
Why Racing didn’t kick the penalty to take the lead, rather than kick for the corner, will forever be a mystery. Instead Finn Russell pumped the ball into the stands and handed over responsibility to his forwards.
The lineout was executed with hooker Teddy Baubigny finding Donnacha Ryan unchallenged at the front pod. With the maul halted the French side slowly, patiently powered their way towards the line with each powerful, organised drive - marshaled from side to side of the 22 by scrum half Maxime Machenaud.
Superstar Virimi Vakatawa, the explosive athlete that he is, almost burst over the line but was just stopped short by the collective effort of the Chiefs.
And that was this contest in a nutshell, world class individuals from Racing 92 against the unbreakable collective brilliance of Exeter. The strength of Exeter Chiefs as a club is not their superstar names but the incredible depth in quality and consistency from whoever wears the jersey. In the key moment of the game, five minutes from time, it was three replacements from the bench who came up big.
On phase 20, after more than two and half minutes of sustained attack from Racing, number eight Antonie Claassen looked to have burst over the line. But Scottish international Sam Skinner hauled him down and then South African Jannes Kirsten assisted to roll the six cap French international onto his back to allow the smallest man on the pitch, scrum half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, to jackal over the ball and win a penalty for not releasing with five minutes and 14 seconds remaining
Considering the stakes it was one of the finest goalline stands ever witnessed in a European final.
Remarkably, in a game where Exeter had struggled to control proceedings throughout, the English side never allowed Racing to touch the ball in the match again, keeping possession and then winning a penalty for man of the match Joe Simmonds to fire over to seal the deal.
Reflecting on the goal line defence in the key moment, beaming Exeter boss Baxter said: “It was pretty good. We talked a lot before the game about our 80 minute game plan. That means fighting for every inch of the pitch right to your try line and you fight for every inch, plus one, right to their tryline. Ironically that was pretty good today, the fight at both ends. It was the bit at the middle which went missing.
“It was a funny game, wasn’t it? It kind of wasn’t an Exeter Chiefs type of game, yet we ended up winning it.
“We didn’t really piece the game together at all. In some ways, it was some of our poorest attack and poorest defence of the season.
“The occasion itself was a little bit
different from some of the other things we have experienced.
“But when we had to, we saw it through.
“At the end of the day it was a final and it doesn’t matter about the performance. We won the game by four points on the scoreboard, and that is pretty much what people will ever remember in three or four years’ time.
“We have had our first go at a European semi-final and a final and we have won them both. It is pretty nice to learn some lessons while winning.
“This is the nice way to do it, up to now we have learnt our lessons the bad way by losing.”
Baxter was keen to ensure his players enjoyed the moment of becoming European champions, but the truth is that their season is far from over. Plenty of beers are sure to have been consumed but as the players return to work today, they will have one almighty blow-out as the prepartions begin to add the Premiership crown to that of their maiden European title.