EU BEAUTY
Brilliant Nowell keeps Chiefs’ European dream alive ...now they just have to beat Munster in Limerick!
JACK NOWELL produced a twinkle-toed masterclass to keep Exeter’s improbable Euro dream alive – and spare English rugby’s blushes.
Staring down the barrel of elimination, Chiefs delivered their Sunday best to avoid joining five of England’s seven representatives on the Champions Cup scrapheap.
Long before the Devon fog descended, Rob Baxter’s men had given themselves the chance to create history and perform a miracle in Limerick on Saturday.
No team has ever failed to win each of their first three games 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 given only three clubs have ever won at Thomond Park in the Champions Cup – and Munster, ludicrously, have two days more than Chiefs to prepare having demolished Gloucester on Friday.
But the Premiership leaders at least have a shot at qualification and travel with some hope given the quality of this display.
England star Nowell (below) led the way in his first game after two months out injured, taking less than three minutes to unpick the Castres defence from long range with his dancing feet.
“Jack ignited our performance with that try,” said Chiefs boss
Rob 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 fullback normally would.”
Buoyed by his brilliance, Nowell’s team-mates joined the party, Ollie Devoto offloading deliciously for Joe Simmonds to bag Chiefs’ second.
Jonny Hill exploded off the back of a ruck for the third and Exeter would have had the bonus point before half-time had Henry Slade not knocked on.
Slade is a perfectionist and took it badly, which was bad news for the visitors. Three minutes into the new half the England centre put his opposite number on his backside with a classy sidestep and released Tom O’Flaherty for a try.
He helped himself to number five, with Luke Cowan-Dickie completing the rout from close range after Castres’ Tudor Stroe was sent off for planting a forearm to Devoto’s head.
“We looked a team that had multiple ways of hurting their defence,” said Baxter “We’ve given ourselves a definite something to go over there to play for.
“It’s going to be a fantastic test and great to see which players want to stand up and fight. It’s as close to knockout as you 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.