Match action
EXETER brushed aside the disappointment of last weekend’s exit from the European Champions Cup with a power-packed secondhalf performance to blow away Wasps.
The first half had seen Chiefs struggle as Wasps were the more inventive, but the visitors failed to take their chances and fell away badly to record their sixth loss in their last seven Premiership games.
Wasps head coach Lee Blackett said: “It’s really disappointing as the final score wasn’t a fair reflection of the game.
“We didn’t help ourselves as we didn’t take our chances and made too many errors and the last 30 minutes wasn’t acceptable.”
In that first half, Wasps were lively with Jacob Umaga and Dan Robson continually probing the defence with wings Josh Bassett and Paolo Odogwu both running strongly.
However Robson made a couple of uncharacteristic handling errors as did a number of others to prevent Wasps having no more than a narrow lead at the interval.
The second half was totally different as Wasps imploded. They gave away two soft tries in two minutes to turn the game Exeter’s way and the hosts easily kicked on from there.
Jonny Hill and Luke Cowan-Dickie were their leading lights up front with Ollie Devoto the star turn behind as his performance was head and shoulders above any other Exeter back.
Wasps made an impressive start by putting the hosts under sustained early pressure but they suffered a hammer blow. An inexplicably poor pass from Robson was picked up by Henry Slade, who immediately fed Devoto for the centre to run 85 metres and score.
Umaga put Wasps on the scoreboard with a simple penalty before Chiefs
scored a second try when a burst from Cowan-Dickie created a run-in for Jonny Hill.
Umaga kicked a second penalty before a mistake from Stuart Hogg gifted Wasps the lead for the first time. A penalty kick from Umaga failed to find touch. Hogg collected but the fullback took too long with his clearance and it was charged down by Bassett, who picked up to score.
Umaga converted from the touchline to hand his side a deserved 13-10 halftime lead.
After the interval,
Exeter raised their game with Sam Skinner breaking from a maul on the halfway line. The lock fed Sam Simmonds who set sail for the line but the No.8 was brought down by an excellent cover tackle from Odogwu.
However Chiefs weren’t to be denied as they scored two tries in three tries. First a well-timed pass from Devoto sent Hogg over before Facundo Cordero crossed after intercepting a stray pass from Malakai Fekitoa.
With 20 minutes remaining, Jack Nowell returned
for his first game since last season’s Premiership final in October with toe and hamstring injuries having kept him out of action.
Wasps realised their race was run and took off two of their lynchpins in Joe Launchbury and Robson with Exeter then able to emphasise their superiority.
First Tomas Francis scored his first try for the club, then Joe Simmonds darted over before Hogg scored his second as Exeter collected 33 unanswered points in a one-sided second half.