Match action
PREMIERSHIP leaders Exeter were made to battle all the way by Bristol but boss Rob Baxter was happy with the four points ahead of next Sunday’s mustwin European Champions Cup clash with Castres.
“You only have to look at this Premiership and how competitive it is and any win at the moment is a good win,” said Baxter.
“Bristol are playing really well at the moment, they’ve got a lot of confidence and they came here to try and win so you have got to play well to beat them.
“Every win is a precious thing. You are going to have to work hard for it. I’ve told the players to get their heads round the fact that every one of these games is going to be like this.
“You’ve got to use some kind of bravery and skill and come through it which is what we’ve done today.”
After a six-day turnaround, Bristol head coach Pat Lam, who lost full-back Charles Piutau to a pre-match test on his hamstring, banked on unleashing his secondstring front row of Jake Woolmore, Tom Lindsay and Lewis Thiede for the first half and it nearly came off in a match marred by a surfeit of scrums.
Lewis was replaced by John Afoa after 28 minutes with Lindsay and Woolmore making way for Harry Thacker and Yann Thomas at half-time – and it was all planned.
“Extremely proud of the effort,” said Lam. “The boys that started did a great job. They had a 40-minute window which allowed us to bring our main front row on.
“We had moments to win the game at 9-7 but lost a lineout penalty which was disappointing.”
The flow of the game was marred with the clock ticking through 13 tedious first-half scrums, plus numerous re-sets on the back of some cold-fingered fumbling.
Powerful No.8 Jordan Crane figured four times in the build-up before Ian Madigan kicked Bristol ahead after the Chiefs strayed offside.
Exeter found their attacking rhythm with Matt Kvesic breaking through a two-man tackle before being hauled down just short. But Ben Moon’s close-range knock-on enabled Bristol to temporarily relieve the pressure before Gareth Steenson’s deep penalty and the resulting lineout set up a spell of forward attrition.
The breakthrough came when Dave Dennis opted for a quick tap penalty rather than the expected scrum and Henry Slade threw a long pass to send the unmarked Santiago Cordero over out wide, with Steenson converting.
Madigan landed a second penalty to cut the gap to one point and his third kick put the Bears back in front after a mid-air collision between Phil Dollman and Cordero as they both went for a high kick handed the visitors an offside penalty.
Trailing 9-7 with 17 minutes to go, the Chiefs spurned a penalty kick near the posts to go for touch. They messed up the first attempt with a handling error but another infringement gave them a second chance and they pounded away until Sean Lonsdale squeezed over in the right corner, with Joe Simmonds converting.