Match Review

Rotherham v Chiefs

Saturday 29th December 

By

Distant Drums

A surprising number of Exeter faithful made the long trek to Rotherham for the mid Christmas holiday trip. 22 on the coach and a decent peppering of “driven” fans tolerated howling gales and lashing rain to watch what for some will have been an enthralling encounter, to others a slog against dour conditions and determined opposition.

The game started off very brightly indeed but unfortunately not for Exeter with the Titans’ new (as I understand it) flyhalf Jamie Lennard slotting 9 points in as many minutes.

The next event of the match was to have a profound effect on the game when an almighty punch up ensued behind the referees’ back when he awarded a scrum Exeters’ way. Who knows what the cause was? but the result was a player from each side taking the walk, both wearing the number 3. Fortunately in 2 respects for Exeter was that the Titans prop received a red for what I have been led to believe was a kick, whilst John Andress went for a ten minute break. The reason I believe that this was fortunate is that having taken an almighty smack to the head that laid him flat he probably needed that long to clear his head!

With both teams down to 14 and a scrum called, the Chiefs chose to replace Number 6 Chad Slade to make up the front row whilst the Titans chose to put 8 forwards on the pitch and took off their right winger, clearly wanting to pressure the Chiefs up front.

This was to prove decisive a few minutes later when Josh Drauniniu crossed in the left corner for his first try of the game. Clearly his reputation hasn’t spread “Oop North” yet or maybe the opposition winger would have been left in place. I could go on for another 1000 words about the game, but suffice to say that many Rotherham fans will feel cheated by the red card and may believe that they would have won, some of their more loyal supporters believing they had “embarrassed” the Chiefs. Two tries from Josh a great 30 metre break from the back of a scrum by stand in No8 Tom Johnson to score and Yappy celebrating his 80+ minutes with a try suggest otherwise.

From this fans point of view we were not at our best, maybe partly due to the conditions which were the worst I’ve seen at any rugby match since a game many years ago at the County Ground when London Welsh stole the points in the dying seconds, maybe due to a hugely committed performance from the Titans. Either way and as a loyal Chiefs fan I have to say that 4 tries and a bonus win away in those conditions were well worth the journey and good luck to Rotherham who on that performance are worth better than their league position.

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