By Leipziger
December 12 2010

The Falcons' defeat at Exeter yesterday means we are likely to fall at the group stage of the Challenge Cup for the first time as we now trail Montpellier by nine points after three games.

Both managers made numerous changes to their teams for a game that would practically eliminate the loser from the competition. Alan Tait brought Tom Catterick, Danny Williams, James Fitzpatrick, Andy Henderson and Michael Tait into the backs, also moving Jeremy Manning to fly-half.

In the pack, James Hall made his first start in a black shirt while Glen Townson, Will Welch and Mark Wilson all started. James Hudson captained a side with no specialist scrum-half on the bench.

Exeter quickly made use of their aggressive forwards to dominate the early stages of the match, and sent two kickable penalties into the corner before deciding to take three points from Ryan Davis's boot.

The first try finally came halfway through the first period when prop Ben Moon forced his way over. Blood replacement Herbie Stupple scored a second soon after and then on half-time Davis sent a big kick over to the right for Matt Jess. With Michael Tait pulled out of position, the winger had no problem scoring. Add in two conversions and Exeter were 22-0 up.

Adding insult to injury Danny Williams had been sin-binned for an inocuous tackling offence just inside our half, when his run had been the only time we had had anything approaching decent possession in the Exeter half. The yellow card was especially strange considering the amount of penalties we had given away in our own 22.

And but for a couple of knock-ons in front of the line Exeter might have long had their bonus point.

The Falcons fared better in the second half. Micky Young had surprisingly not been replaced at the break and took a pass from Mark Wilson to snipe around the tight side of the scrum, forcing his way through the defence to score our first points of the day.

Joel Hodgson replaced Young at scrum-half and performed well, never better than with a great run through the middle of the home 22. With little support his hopeful pass was hacked on by Mark Wilson and the ball reached Williams on the right for a try that gave the scoreboard some respectability, although as with Young's try, the conversion missed.

Just minutes later though the Exeter scrum asserted itself in our 22 and Chad Slade was pushed over for the bonus-point try.

Injuries to Tom Catterick and Alex Tait, the former only (hopefully) with a mouth injury but the latter being carried off, led to our backline being rejigged to contain Luke Fielden at scrum-half and Ally Hogg on the wing. Hogg was targeted with a big kick over to the right by Phil Dollman and all the Scottish flanker could do was prevent Andrew Higgins from scoring any closer to the posts than he did. Dollman converted anyway.

The Falcons went back on the attack but gave the scorers no more trouble. Yellow cards for Jon Vickers punching and, particularly harshly, James Fitzpatrick for what referee Neil Paterson considered a dangerous tackle, were incidentals in the final ten minutes.

Exeter's 36-10 win keeps the in contention for a place in the quarter-finals, though they probably need to win all three of their remaining games and hope either we or Bourgoin beat Montpellier.

As for us, we probably only have pride to play for in the return meeting with the Chiefs at KP a week today, as well as some form ahead of Boxing Day. Anybody who played yesterday will also be hoping for another chance to play themselves into the Leeds clash – few of our players were close to doing themselves justice at Sandy Park.