Nowell points way for Chiefs
EXETER 34 CASTRES 12
JACK Nowell produced a twinkle-toed masterclass to keep Exeter’s improbable European dream alive – and spare English rugby’s blushes.
Staring down the barrel of elimination, the Chiefs delivered their Sunday best to avoid joining five of England’s seven representatives on the Heineken Cup scrapheap.
Long before the Devon fog descended on Sandy Park, Rob Baxter’s men had given themselves the chance to create history and perform a miracle in Limerick next Saturday.
No team has ever failed to win their first three matches in Europe’s premier club competition and gone on to reach the quarter-finals.
Exeter will do so if they beat Munster and deny the two-time former champions a losing bonus point. Easier said than done, of course, given only three clubs have ever won at Thomond Park in the competition – and Munster, ludicrously, have two days more than the Chiefs to prepare, having demolished Gloucester on Friday.
But the Premiership leaders at least get a shot at qualification and will travel with some hope given the quality of this display.
England wing Nowell led the way in his first game after two months out injured, taking less than three minutes to unpick Castres’ defence from long range with his dancing feet.
“Jack ignited our performance with that try,” said Chiefs director of rugby Baxter. “I don’t know where it came from!
“Playing at 15 gave him freedom to attack. We saw him picking and going and getting his hands on the ball, way more than a full-back normally would.”
Buoyed by his brilliance, Nowell’s team-mates joined the party, Ollie Devoto offloading deliciously out of the back for Joe Simmonds to bag another.
Jonny Hill exploded over from a ruck for the third and Exeter would have had the bonus point before half-time had Henry Slade not knocked on after his team-mates went the length of the pitch.
Slade is a perfectionist and took it badly, which was not good news for the visitors. Three minutes into the second half, he put his opposite number on his backside with a classy sidestep and set up Tom O’Flaherty.
Slade then helped himself to try number five, but if Castres thought it could get no worse they were wrong. Tudor Stroe planted a forearm to Devoto’s head and was sent off.
“We looked like a team that had multiple ways of hurting their defence,” said Baxter after Luke Cowan-Dickie had completed the rout. “It means we have given ourselves a definite something to go over to Limerick to play for. It is going to be a fantastic test for us and great to see which players want to stand up and fight.
“It is as close to knockout as you can get, and we have to go there and not back down physically or emotionally.”
EXETER – Tries: Nowell, Simmonds, Hill, O’Flaherty, Slade, Cowan-Dickie. Cons: Simmonds 2.
CASTRES – Tries: Paris, Combezou. Con: Urdapilleta.