Match Review 

Exeter Chiefs 76 Rotherham Titans 21

Despite Pete Drewett's understandable regret at allowing 3 tries to be scored against us yesterday I personally felt that we were witnessing the next step up the evolutionary ladder which will hopefully lead into the Premireship next season unless, like the dinosaurs, we are wiped out by an asteroid of Leedsian proportions which is currently on a collision course but which we may be able to blow to pieces on December 20th.

This was the first game in which I felt that we basically ignored the opposition and just played our own game; far too often in the past we have allowed the opposition to draw us into: slowing the game down, negative tactics and conceding penalties out of a sense of frustration. Yesterday we just got on with winning the ball, shipping it down the line and letting the threequarters (and at times the forwards) run hard and fast with it. We no longer had to work the ball to and fro across the line going through phase after phase, instead we were able to attack sometimes from set piece (the try from the lineout) and sometimes simply by "letting the ball do the work" getting it to the wings faster than the defence could get across to cover. Personally I'm not too worried if we concede 20 points so long as we score 60, and anyway a lot of lower half of the table sides won't stick to the task like Roth did yesterday. Having said that though we have to be delighted by the quality of the defence for 8 or so minutes when we kept Roth out, ok we conceded a string of penalties but in those circumstances what would have been a 50/50 ball on halfway suddenly becomes a penalty as refs get twitchy near the goal line.

We are becoming accustomed to "Chicken" playing scrum half as well as enforcing at the scrums and making yards with the ball in hand and it seems to be rubbing off on John Andress who threw at least one excellent scrumhalf pass yesterday. Tom Johnson had another superlative game and demonstrated exactly how dangerous he is if the opposition give him any space at all, Fats required double or treble manning to stop him which helped create space for the guys outside him and Paul McKenzie's speed, angles and ability to move off either foot are a joy to watch. It was also a pleasure to see Tom Bedford get that much game time and use it to such good effect, if he gets to occupy the 12 jersey at least until Matt Cornwell is fit again then he and Paul McKenzie are going to terrify most defences in this division. I also believe that Tom Hayes has made a lot of difference sharing the "unseen" work wuth Richie which is helping to provide the quality ball on which the backs are thriving.

Whilst December is probably the "make or break" month for the rest of the season we at least go into it not only with maximum points from November but also, in my opinion, having played our best rugby of the season yesterday. If we can package that performance and bring it out again next week and again on Dec 20th then we should be able to put the "Key" "Back" in the lock and close off Leeds' ambitions for this season.

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