Chiefs are through to semi-finals
Saints are swept away at Sandy Park
EXETER CHIEFS marched into their first European Champions Cup semi-final after beating Northampton 38-15 at Sandy Park yesterday.
The Chiefs will host French heavyweights Toulouse, who are chasing a record fifth European title, in Devon next Saturday.
Exeter joined their fellow English challengers Saracens in the last four, going one better than their previous best Champions Cup campaign four years ago, after tries by scrum-half Jack Maunder, flanker Jacques Vermeulen (two), wing Jack Nowell and lock Jonny Hill sunk the Saints.
Northampton fielded 19-year-old Manny Iyogun at loosehead prop after injuries excluded four other players in that position, and they trailed by only four points at halftime following captain Teimana Harrison’s try plus a Dan Biggar conversion and penalty.
However, despite Fraser Dingwall’s opportunist second-half touchdown, Northampton were undone as Exeter fly-half Joe Simmonds ticked things over through four conversions and a penalty before Gareth Steenson converted Vermeulen’s second try late on.
It kept alive runaway Premiership leaders Exeter’s hopes of a domestic and European double this season. Toulouse, though, are likely to test them like no other team in this season’s tournament, with a place in next month’s final at stake against Champions Cup holders Saracens or Racing 92 Paris.
Exeter included centre Ian Whitten for his 50th Champions Cup appearance, while Tom O’Flaherty returned on the wing after injury.
Northampton’s well-chronicled front-row problems meant that Iyogun started for the Saints in their ninth European Cup quarter-final.
England head coach Eddie Jones looked on as Exeter, 31 points above Northampton in the Premiership, fell behind to a seventh-minute Biggar penalty. It rounded off a sustained spell of Saints pressure, which included an attacking scrum after Nowell was tackled behind his own line.
Northampton’s scrum held up well early on, and it took Exeter 17 minutes to launch an attack – from which they promptly scored.
England centre Henry Slade stepped inside his opposite number Dingwall, taking him clear of the Saints’ defence, and he found the supporting Maunder, who finished off a razor-sharp move.
Simmonds kicked the conversion, and there was no let-up from Exeter as they started moving ominously through the gears.
The Chiefs’ forwards found a ravenous appetite for the battle, and it was their relentless approach work that created a 25th-minute try from close range for Vermeulen that Simmonds converted to open up an 11-point lead.
Alarm bells were ringing for the visitors, but they responded impressively and cut their deficit three minutes before half-time.
The Saints’ pack drove a closerange line-out, and Harrison touched down. Biggar converted from the touchline as Northampton ended an intense opening 40 minutes firmly back in contention.
Exeter, though, restarted by flying out of the blocks, with Nowell shredding Northampton’s defence on a weaving 30-metre run that saw him claim his team’s third try, with Simmonds again converting.
Hill then crashed over from a metre out, but Northampton hit back when Dingwall picked a decisive attacking line and posted the Saints’ second try.
The visitors displayed admirable resilience, and they had a spell of territorial dominance before Exeter cleared the danger through a lengthy touch-finder by replacement scrumhalf Sam Hidalgo-Clyne.
Vermeulen capped a fine individual display with his second touchdown, as the Chiefs finished the contest strongly.