Back at the back

By Leipziger
September 17 2010

This weekend we make our first visit to a new Premiership ground in six years. Having already been to one ground this season that in recent years could have been described as a sandy park, this time it is the real deal – Sandy Park in Exeter, home of the Chiefs.

Having strived for promotion for several years, Exeter finally reached the Promised Land in May with a playoff final victory over Bristol.  They will hope to stay up, or at least be competitive enough to become the 14^th member of the top 13 club.

Gloucester, beaten in Devon on the opening day of the season, are unlikely to be the only team given a bloody nose by the new boys this season, although they received a sharp lesson on how unsentimental the big league can be at Welford Road on Saturday.

Our only previous meeting with Exeter was in the fourth round of the Tetley's Bitter Cup in January 1998.  It was a cold day, though the conditions were not as nasty as the following home game's programme suggested.

Two little memories stand out from that day, the first being that when we got the ground my dad suddenly thought he hadn’t brought enough cash for me, him and my brother to get in, and he refused to believe me that the ticket prices were reduced.  Fortunately I was right.  Also, I recall some bloke having a go at me for blocking his son's view of the game as I jumped up at one of the tries, standing directly behind the south goal as I was.  If you're reading this mate, sorry again but it wasn't deliberate.

The Falcons, halfway through the season in which we were crowned Premiership champions, were victorious 34-17 thanks to tries from Tim Stimpson (two, plus two conversions), Tony Underwood, Richard Metcalfe, Peter Walton and Va'aiga Tuigamala.

Our team that day was:

Tim Stimpson, John Bentley, Martin Shaw, Jonny Wilkinson (Va'aiga Tuigamala 40), Tony Underwood, Rob Andrew, Gary Armstrong, David Barnes, Neil Frankland, George Graham, Richard Metcalfe, Doddie Weir, Peter Walton, Richard Arnold, Dean Ryan (captain).

The game might be one that is remembered fondly by Wilkinson, even if he was replaced at half-time, as it was his first start for the Falcons.  Bentley, Stimpson, Barnes and Gosforth stalwart Frankland made their last appearances in our starting XV.

Exeter seem to have adjusted well to life in the Premiership.  In their first match, they beat Gloucester at Sandy Park and last week led Leicester 10-20 at half-time at Welford Road before succumbing to the bonus point Tigers.

The Chiefs do not have a host of household names, although James Scaysbrook, Luke Arscott and Mark Foster provided Premiership experience in the starting lineup last week, the latter having scored in both games so far this year.  Ryan Davis, the former Bath back who was a summer transfer target for the Falcons at one stage, was on the bench.  His fellow former Bathplug Andrew Higgins has yet to represent Exeter in the league following his comeback from a drugs ban.  I didn’t know until this week that Higgins spent time during his ban as a manager of a restaurant in Paris.

Exeter also boast two former Northampton props in Brett Sturgess and Chris Budgen, as well as Haydn Thomas, who started in the number nine shirt at Leicester and has previously been at Bristol and Gloucester and has competition at scrum-half from Samoa internationals Garrick Cowley and Junior Poluleuligaga (wonder how away announcers will get on with that name!) and former Wasp James Honeyben.

One of the stars of Exeter’s Premiership time so far has been fly-half Gareth Steenson, who has kicked 29 points including 17 in the win over Gloucester.  Playing in the Premiership for the first time and competing with Davis and Fijian international Josh Matavesi for his shirt, Steenson is likely to be one of the Chiefs’ main weapons this season and we will have to be careful not to give away too many kickable penalties as we did at Sale.

The Falcons have changed two players in their starting lineup for this game, with Alex Tait replacing Luke Fielden at full-back and Rob Vickerman coming in for Andy Henderson, Luke Eves moving inside to the 12 shirt on his return to the South West.  Fielden drops to the bench while Henderson is left out of the squad altogether:

15 Alex Tait

14 Gcobani Bobo

13 Rob Vickerman

12 Luke Eves

11 Charlie Amesbury

10 Jimmy Gopperth

9 Micky Young

1 Jon Golding

2 Rob Vickers

3 Tim Ryan

4c James Hudson

5 Tim Swinson

6 Brent Wilson

7 Redford Pennycook

8 Ally Hogg

Replacements

16 Kieran Brookes

17 Micky Ward

18 Grant Shiells

19 Glen Townson

20 Will Welch

21 Chris Pilgrim

22 Jeremy Manning

23 Luke Fielden

Rob Baxter goes with the same starting XV as the one that took on Leicester last week, with the only two changes being on the bench where Poluleuligaga and Higgins come in for Honeyben and Matt Jess.  Former Munster forward Tom Hayes captains the side.  This is what Chieftains think about their team, which is as follows:

15 Luke Arscott
14 Nic Sestaret
13 Phil Dollman
12 Bryan Rennie
11 Mark Foster
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Neil Clark
3 Hoani Tui
4c Tom Hayes
5 James Hanks
6 Tom Johnson
7 James Scaysbrook
8 James Phillips

Replacements
16 Simon Alcott
17 Ben Moon
18 Chris Budgen
19 Dave Gannon
20 Chad Slade
21 Junior Poluleuligaga
22 Ryan Davis
23 Andrew Higgins

The Falcons would of course be foolish to take Exeter lightly tomorrow, and I don’t think they will, but I wonder whether Saturday might be a case of “after the Lord Mayor’s show” for the Chiefs, having beaten a big club and local rival at home while pushing the champions hard in their last away game.  A match against regular relegation candidates Newcastle might seem a little underwhelming for them.  If so, that can only be a positive for us.

Exeter v Newcastle, 18/09/2010

Discussion started by FalconsRugby.org.uk , 17/09/2010 12:09

FalconsRugby.org.uk
17/09/2010 12:09

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Back Row Move
17/09/2010 12:20

Another fine piece Leipy.

A very good point about the "after the Lord Mayors Show" syndrome.

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Exeforever
17/09/2010 14:18

We do have a tradition of underperforming against "lesser opposition" at least in the Championship. However we also tend to rise to the occasion and this is a 10 pointer if ever there was one. Add to that that all the threequarters have players who are after their jerseys and there will be no lack of motivation on our part. It may well be a high scoring game with the team that scores last winning. I don't think it will be a blow out for either side.

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Monkey1
17/09/2010 14:24

Nice one Leipy, I do like the links built into the story.

Not so sure about Glos being local, I certainly wouldn't want to walk from Exeter to Glos.

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