The Bee Hive - Bees 35-17 Exeter

Bees 35-17 Exeter

By Elliott Josypenko
September 14 2006
Pertemps Bees produced one of the finest displays of attacking rugby seen in years at Sharmans Cross Road, in thrashing an ill-tempered and ragged Exeter side 35-17. Full report to come

SCORE

National Division 1

9nd September 2006, 3pm

Sharmans Cross Road, Solihull

Attendance: 750

	Pertemps Bees	35
	Exeter Chiefs	17

LINEUPS

Pertemps Bees: 15 Jon Goodridge; 14 Dave Knight, 13 Adam Billig, 12 Tristan Davies, 11 Matt Nuthall; 10 Jon Higgins, 9 Reece Spee; 1 Casey Dunning, 2 Stewart Pearl, 3 Terry Sigley, 4 Mark Gabey, 5 Mark Cornwell (captain), 6 Dan Tuohy, 7 Akapusi Qera, 8 Will Matthews. Replacements: Mike Baxter, Brad Davies, Rod Petty, Matt Miles, Hotili Asi, Alex Davidson, Leo Halavatau.

REPORT

Pertemps Bees turned on the style for the Sharmans Cross Road faithful as they outmuscled and outfought one of National League One's full-time club in another thrilling display.
The Bees ran in five tries to pick up their second bonus point in as many games and showed their character by weathering Exeter's fightback in the third quarter to record a deserved maximum points win.
Exeter, who were the only side to defeat Harlequins last season, arrived at Sharmans Cross Road buoyed with confidence after an opening day win but they were allowed no time at all to settle by a dominant Bees pack, superbly led by Mark Cornwell.
Youngster Dan Tuohy had an outstanding game at flanker, Terry Sigley proved an effective ball-carrier and capable distributor and Casey Dunning gave Exeter's front row a torrid time until he was replaced because of injury midway through the second half.
So dominant were the Bees forwards that Exeter were regularly shunted off their own ball in the scrums and driven backwards with an effective driving maul.
"Exeter put us under pressure in the second half but the pleasing thing is that we stood up to them and showed a lot of character in the way that we hung in there and then came back to score 15 points without reply at the end," said Steve Williams, Pertemps Bees' head coach.
"Against a team like Exeter you are never going to be able to dominate for 80 minutes, the best you can hope for is 45 minutes. We made some mistakes which reflects the fact that we are a side that has not played together very much.
"But you cannot fault the character and commitment of the boys. I think our supporters saw a lot of the good things that we are trying to be about. We played with pace and power and we can take a lot of encouragement from this performance."
The Bees trailed only once, to an eight minute penalty from Exeter fly-half Tony Yapp. But that score was quickly cancelled out by a try from Dunning from a driving maul after 13 minutes which was followed by a Jon Higgins penalty four minutes later.
The Bees built on their lead with a superbly-worked second try after 25 minutes. Will Matthews won crisp line-out ball, scrum-half Reece Spee picked the gap in the Exeter defence and his snaking run carved the hole for winger Kyle Palm to score close to the posts.
Higgins added the conversion and the usually-reliable Yapp then fluffed two kickable penalties in a three minutes period.
The Bees struck again just before the break when Fijian flanker Akapusi Qera rounded off another superb sustained attack with his third try in two games.
But referee Ashley Rowden played nine minutes of first half injury time and Exeter scored in the last minute of it when centre Junior Fatialofa burst through some weak tackling to cross under the posts and Yapp added the extras.
The lead was reduced to just three points after 54 minutes when Exeter right wing Jason Luff crossed on the overlap and Yapp added the conversion but that was the last that was seen of the Chiefs.
Higgins slotted an important penalty after 61 minutes as Cornwell made the correct call to kick for goal and the impressive Sigley then powered over for the bonus point try six minutes later with Higgins adding the conversion.
The Bees were still not finished and the hard-working Dave Knight was given space to scamper over for an uncoverted try five minutes from time.
To complete a miserable day for Exeter they had former London Irish scrum-half Kevin Barrett sent off for stamping in injury time.

TIMELINE

Scorer	Bees	'	Exeter	Scorer
	35	FT	17
Knight Try	35	75	17
Sigley Try (Higgins Con)	30	67	17
Higgins Pen	23	61	17
	20	54	17	Luff Try (Yapp Con)
	20	HT	10
	20	40	10	J Fatialofa Try (Yapp Con)
Qera Try	20	38	3
Palm Try (Higgins Con)	15	25	3
Higgins Pen	8	17	3
Dunning Try	5	13	3
	0	8	3	Yapp Pen
	0		0