Cuthbert ‘is all you want from a winger’

EXETER’S assistant coach Ali Hepher hailed the efforts of Alex Cuthbert: “You can see what a phenomenal player Alex is as he is everything you would want from a winger.

“After being out for so long with injury, he’s been remarkable in the last two games and his try was the defining moment of the match.

“We need to look after him and get as many minutes on the pitch as we can from him so we took him off as a precautionary measure as his back was tightening up.”

London Irish’s director of rugby Declan Kidney said: “Exeter gave us a beating today and we know we have to improve quickly, for if we don’t the result will be the same against high-flying Bristol next week.

“We will have to work on certain areas and it didn’t help that we had a lot of injuries which caused disruption but that’s part and parcel of the game and we needed to work round it.”

GEORGE Skivington insists the decision to suspend relegation for the current season had not affected his or the club’s approach.

“Relegation (being suspended) doesn’t change our plans,” said the Gloucester director of rugby. “We are blooding the young players and that’s what we’ll continue to do.

“The pressure we put on the club is very much internally driven and that will continue. Relegation doesn’t change that.”

Jake Heenan, the tryscoring Bristol flanker, admitted his side had been off the boil for much of the encounter.

“We made hard work of it,” he said. “We have to be better than that on the ball, more clinical.

“But we’ve got an expectancy of winning now. Ten minutes from the end, we knew we had the win in us.”

Bristol boss Pat Lam added: “Fair play to both teams because that pitch is like concrete, it hardened up really tough and boys putting their bodies on the line like that was a massive effort.”