Wasps held by 14-man Exeter in thriller

LONDON: Exeter overcame the handicap of playing with 14 men for the final 35 minutes to hold English Premiership leaders Wasps to a pulsating 35-35 draw on Sunday.

Lock Jonny Hill was sent off for Exeter, who narrowly managed to avoid defeat in an end-to-end encounter that featured a penalty try and four further touchdowns for each side.

“The team are due huge credit as we went down to 14 men pretty early, but we didn’t crumble as we worked hard to keep possession,” said Exeter coach Rob Baxter.

Sam Simmonds, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Olly Woodburn and Jack Maunder crossed for Exeter, with Gareth Steenson converting on each occasion and after the penalty try.

Christian Wade, Kyle Eastmond, Joe Simpson and Alex Rieder were Wasps’ tryscorers, Jimmy Gopperth adding five conversions.

“It was a great game for the neutral and I’d have settled for that before coming down here,” said Wasps director of rugby Dai Young.

“Maybe we should have won it after they went down to 14, but they had the wind in their favour and kept it a little bit tighter.”

The draw left Wasps five points clear of defending champions Saracens, with Exeter five points further back in third place.

Wasps had the best of the first half, which ended 21-21, but Exeter drew first blood in the second when Steenson sent Cowan-Dickie in beneath the posts after only four minutes.

But the momentum swung towards back towards the visitors a minute later when Hill was dismissed for a dangerous challenge on Ashley Johnson.

“If you go high into a tackle, it is always possible that there will be accidental contact,” said Baxter.

“It was not deliberate from Jonny Hill. The contact was not deliberate and only minimal, but a card was always going to be issued, whether it was yellow or red.”

Danny Cipriani’s pass sent Eastmond over, only for some flaky defending to allow Woodburn to scramble across the whitewash and restore Exeter’s advantage.

Simpson came on and quickly made a mark to level the scores with 10 minutes to play, but Exeter dug deep and hung on to claim a creditable draw. - AFP