EXETER REACH EUROPEAN FINAL
Exeter eye Euro crown after routing Toulouse
RUGBY royalty dethroned, now Exeter are eyeing a first European crown after an emphatic evisceration of Toulouse.
The four-time continental champions were left strewn in bits across the West Country after the demolition men had finished with them.
Harry Williams scored twice and Sam and Joe Simmonds — the boys from Teignmouth — made sure it was jam today at last for the Chiefs, who are now the cream not just of Devon but England and possibly Europe, too.
The French superstars were left dazzled by a lilac-shirted licking. They scored two tries through Alban Placines and Matthis Lebel but were well beaten.
‘It’s incredible, isn’t it?’ said director of rugby Rob Baxter after guiding Exeter to a first final. ‘I’m very proud. Big games of rugby, they are like boxing matches. At some stage, the guy who can’t get his hands up any more can get knocked out.
‘What is the best way of fatiguing a big guy? You stick him on the floor and get him to get up. It didn’t all go our way but if we had stopped attacking today we would have been dead.’
Exeter could barely have dreamt of making a European Cup final 25 years ago when the competition began. As Toulouse won the first
European Cup in 1996 Exeter were battling out of Courage League Division 4 against Redruth, Walsall and Aspatria, and by the time rugby’s most regal club had their f ourth t i t l e, t he Chiefs were promoted the same week to the Premiership for the first time.
Domestically, no one can cope with Chiefs’ power game, but a Toulouse pack full of giants was bound to test them.
In the first 20 minutes the French began the assault. Big, bruising behemoths never stopped charging on, with nippy No 9 Antoine Dupont sniffing to provide the boy-band back line with space.
Exeter could not cope for a while. They did well to concede only two penalties, both kicked by Thomas Ramos, before finding their feet in their first European Cup semi.
It was then you thought they needed their crowd. This place would have been jumping, rocking and roaring with Devon hordes in the West Country sun.
But Exeter had to invite every partisan ball- boy, bouncy- castle blower-upper, kit-man and cleaner to make a din instead. They bayed when the whistle started to blow
Chiefs’ way. A key scrum penalty five metres from their line had them on their feet.
That marked Exeter’s first attack, and by the half-hour mark they had a try. Joe Simmonds put Tom O’Flaherty in a hole and the Chiefs went rumbling left. After five phases it was Williams who scored the try.
Simmonds converted, but Toulouse responded. Exeter were keeping Cheslin Kolbe quiet, but the World Cup-winning Springbok broke on the right and Toulouse were in.
Chi e f s s c r a mbled back but allowed the French to fizz left to substitute Placines, who scored on the wing having just come on for the injured Rory Arnold.
Crucially, it felt at the time, Thomas Ramos missed the conversion and Exeter rose again. If rugby was exclusively played five metres from the line the Chiefs would never lose. And to get there again they needed nifty work from Henry Slade and Jack Nowell on the right to provide the opening. Then a penalty. Luke Cowan-Dickie tapped and went, crunching f orward, and Sam Simmonds finished it off, with his brother Joe converting for a threepoint lead at the break.
Exeter would need more. At this point Toulouse had only conceded 19 second-half points from seven games in this stilted tournament.
Never had they seen seven slip past after half-time, until Williams took his second from closer range than the first after the TMO confirmed he had touched down, and fly-half Simmonds converted. Now, 10 points up with 15 minutes to go, Exeter dared to dream. And when Joe Simmonds jinked in for their fourth and converted, the dream was becoming a glorious reality.
Toulouse scored a consolation try from Lebel with five minutes left, which Ramos converted, but it was all too late.
The Tomahawk choppers had taken an axe to them, and now at Ashton Gate in three weeks’ time, only Racing 92 stand between the Chiefs and the throne.