Williams: We must beat Exeter again to mean anything
Gloucester centre Owen Williams believes their excellent Heineken Champions Cup victory over Exeter Chiefs will only be remembered if they beat them again at Kingsholm on Friday night.
The Cherry and Whites’ success over their Gallagher Premiership rivals was built on an impressive forward effort. A Willi Heinz try in the first half, after an electrifying run by Ollie Thorley, was added to by further touchdowns in the second period from South African hooker Jaco Visagie and England No8 Ben Morgan, as they denied Exeter even a losing bonus point.
It was Gloucester’s third win at Sandy Park in five years, and the Chiefs’ first defeat at home in any competition since February, but it was quite a change in fortune after the visitors lost the league match at the same venue 23-6 only two weeks previously.
“We are really pleased. It is a big result for us, but it counts for nothing if we don’t back it up on Friday,” said Williams.
“I thought we dealt with the conditions a lot better than our previous visit. We kept it a bit tighter and the boys put in a massive shift, we dominated up front, our kicking game was good and I thought we probably learnt the lessons from the first match a fortnight ago.
“It was pretty blustery and really wet, and it came down to who executed the basics better and I felt like we came out on top in that.”
Williams could have had a try himself had Thorley popped the ball up to him, instead of Heinz, when he was tackled just short of the line, with several Gloucester players in support.
“I was pretty gutted he didn’t give it to me to be honest,” Williams said. “But Ollie is on fire at the moment and he is playing some unbelievable rugby, and long may it continue with him making breaks.”
Exeter, who scored tries at the start of each half through Don Armand and Nic White and another at the death by Tom Lawday, were left counting the cost of a loss that not only all but ended their hopes of reaching the European quarterfinals, but also saw them pick up a stack of injuries.
England centre Henry Slade went off with a shoulder problem and Australia scrum-half White with a possible recurrence of a broken foot that saw him miss most of the first two months of the season, while his replacement Stuart Townsend (leg) and lock Ollie Atkins (hamstring) were other significant casualties. It left Exeter having to get through the last 12 minutes with a fly-half playing at scrum-half and a hooker plugging the gap in the second row.
“It doubly hurts when you lose and pick up injuries but we have always been a team who dust ourselves down and get on with things, and that’s what we are going to have to do,” said Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby.
“We need to be challenging the players and we need to be a team that challenges ourselves as coaches, too, because it feels so frustrating to watch us perform like that.”