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PutnoBlue on Bedford forum
From Gemini FM
15 Sean Marsden
14 Matt Jess
13 Bryan Rennie
12 Tom Bedford
11 Josh Drauniniu
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Clive Stuart-Smith

1 Brett Sturgess
2 Sam Blythe
3 John Andress
4 Lewis Stevenson
5 Tom Hayes
6 Tom Johnson
7 Richie Pugh
8 Richie Baxter (capt)
Replacements:

16 Saul Nelson
17 Chris Budgen
18 Dan Tuohy
19 Chris Cracknell
20 Kevin Barrett
21 Danny Gray
22 Matt Cornwell


Director of Rugby Pete Drewett's named an unchanged line-up for Saturday's game against Bedford, after last weekend's trip to Moseley fell victim to the weather.
Exeter have been without a game in a fortnight, since they beat West Country neighbours Cornish Pirates.

Chiefs have been training on an all-weather pitch for certain sessions. How the other half live.

Games between us and Exeter usually make for some close results, and tense finishes - the previous match between the sides this season being a perfect example..

Josh Drauniniu The Exeter Chiefs wing made his international 7s debut for England and the 23-year-old did not look back, scoring three tries as England reached the final in Dubai. earlier this month in Dubai. He is going to be flying and stopping him has got to be a priority.

Marsden at Full Back has already bagged 12 tries this season and the Scot who was prolific at Bristol (think he holds a scoring record???)
He gave an interview just after Ex beat us at home…..
“Marsden's latest touchdown came in the dramatic 26-23 win at National League One leaders Bedford Blues last Saturday, when the Chiefs sealed victory with an injury-time penalty from fly-half Gareth Steenson. It was a win, together with the recent away success at Cornish Pirates, which could prove crucial in the context of Exeter's promotion bid, as the Chiefs lost at both venues last season.
"Those two teams are really tough to go away to and get results," said Marsden. "They are two nice fixtures to get out of the way, and to get two wins is superb.
"Bedford pride themselves on their home form, but they are going to win a lot of games away from home as well because they are a good team, but at home their fans have an expectation and their players rise to the occasion. It is a massive plus that we went there and got a win to keep our momentum going, and we will be taking that into the home game with Sedgley Park on Saturday."

It was sweet revenge for Exeter, who lost 14-12 at Goldington Road last season to a final-minute drop goal.
"We were on the wrong end of that sort of game last year at Bedford and know how it feels to go there and have such a tight game and go away with nothing," said Marsden.
"We certainly didn't want to repeat that this year, but it was such hard work. It was a tough game, and full credit to Bedford. They're a really good side and they are going to have a good year, but we are just so proud of ourselves.
"I think we showed our team spirit and how far we've come as a unit to really grind out that result and stick with it for the full 80 or 90 minutes that were played."
After Steenson banged over a superb 52-metre penalty in the 79th minute to make it 23-23, he then missed a drop goal in the fourth minute of injury time, which left Exeter fans fearing the chance of victory might have gone, but Marsden said the players kept believing the win was there for the taking.
"The drop goal was tight, but we knew we had three or four minutes left because the ref had kept us up to date with the time, so it was just a case of working our way back and getting another opportunity," he explained.
"I think that shows the maturity of the team, that we were able to keep our heads and get what we deserved."
He added: "We didn't help ourselves at times in the game with the way we played, but that's the way it goes and the important thing is getting through those bad errors and sticking together and making sure you dig deep and come out with the result."
Marsden was full of praise for Steenson, who once again showed what a good goalkicker he is with another impressive 16-point haul, including the match-winning strike.
"The pressure on those guys is immense, and full credit to Steeno," said Marsden. "You see him out there practising his kicks all week. He comes in early and stays out late, nudging them over from all over the place, and a lot of hard graft goes into those pressure kicks, so he deserves the plaudits."
Marsden has kept his place in recent weeks ahead of strong competition from Gary Kingdom and Ben Breeze, but he played down the try-scoring role he has had in Exeter's three-match winning streak, saying: "It is nice to score tries but, from a back-three point of view, the team are putting me and Josh into positions to score tries, and we are grateful to run them in."
Ahead of Josh and Sean in the try stakes is Matt Jess who showed us his quality down at Launceston last year when many of us thought he was on his way to the Saints. Instead he is at Exeter and has crossed the line no fewer than 13 times (that’s one less than Ian Davey). Matt lines up on the wing wearing 14.

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Rennie is back after a lengthy injury--- did his shoulder at Plywood but the former London Irish man finds himself back in favour but lining up alongside the man who replaced him Tom Bedford.
Steenson as we know is lethal with the boot so we need to avoid penalties basically anywhere in our half….He sits 3rd in the points chart on 145 just 4 ahead of Skippy (if only he’d slotted that one against Welsh)
We know the Leeds pack will be once again well organised and they will be very hard to compete against in the line out.

The ref is Roy Maybank (refereed us up at Otley exactly a year ago ironically and sent Shuttleworth to the sin bin –what a good referee)
Touch Judges: Nigel Higginson, Peter Huckle…

Score prediction--- haven’t got a clue—really worried that putting the best No’9 at this level on the bench alongside an international fallback might result in the sort of mountain we had to climb after 30 minutes up at Donny- when all that happened then was we got buried by an avalanche….
Billy is won heck of a player but can he pull the strings at 10 against a team like Exeter—we’ll find out but the job is made that much harder without the quick breaks the clever passes and the vision of Karl who buys talented guys like Billy, Vassy and Liam crucial seconds to spot a break or a hole.
With Josh, Matt and Sean all in the side and a fit again Rennie the Ex backs will run and run and in the end I suspect the difference between full time pros and plucky amateurs will show in the fitness levels an Exeter will run out comfortable 5-0 winners- but they’ll know they have been in a game because we are Bedford and we wont surrender.