Exeter Chiefs
A Rough Ride - but still 4 points
Chiefs
By ExTeddChief
November 21 2010
As Rob Baxter put it this was probably our best win but not our best performance. However 4 points takes us to 7th after round 8!
A rough ride – but still four points
It was the start of the 08/09 season and what was thought to be our second serious run at promotion. Leeds, as the team just sent down from the Premiership were the main threats to that dream and so their visit to Sandy Park had a do or die feel to it. With a dodgy knock on call which I had a pretty good view of from the SW Comms stand, our hopes of promotion were effectively blown for another year.
Now though, we have reached the promised land and after an awesome first Premiership away win vs Saracens, an amazing win over Wasps which I missed as I didn’t think the LV Cup was worth spending money on(doh!) and an apparently disappointing draw vs Cardiff, the Chiefs were back in Premiership action and I was back at Sandy Park, watching the Chiefs play what was on paper their easiest game of the season against a Leeds side that appeared to be the dead men walking – surely we’d cane them.
Well after lunch at Nandos Dad and I were off to St Davids station to RV with my grandfather. Dad lives in Teignmouth but was raised in Exeter so the result is three generations of men all loyal to the Chiefs! Dad and I were seated in the Karrimore and before the match even started Dad was commenting “Oh my ears” and I replied “get used to it”. I was time for another Sandy Park rumble.
Well it didn’t seem to be that long before the first scrum and when the ref blew up, Dad asked “what happened?” “Their scrum collapsed, that’s what happened” was my response. This proved to be a regular occurance.
Though their try line wasn’t quite breachable that didn’t stop us from pretty much running the show. Eventually they conceded a penalty, bang, Davis booted it over. Another penalty, bang, over again. Slight problem, Leeds suddenly started getting big ideas and the next thing we knew they were fastbreaking right in front of our eyes! How did they manage not to score a try? How did their kicker manage to hit the post from point blank range? Well, Cieron Thomas did manage to slot a pen before half time and though we were still in front at the whistle, this was certainly proving to be a rougher ride than expected.
Half time meant RVing with grandfather, uncle and beer at the Buffalo Bar. Grandfather had been sitting right in front of Rob, gaffer was apparantly not in a good mood. I couldn’t blame him. Surely we could step things up in the second half.
Leeds seemed to have other ideas though and Chiefs took a while to respond, in the meantime Thomas booted over another pen and that meant that the Chiefs really did have to step it up. However they certainly proved capable of doing just that.
Now we were getting a good view of our attacking play and it looked as though it was a Chiefs try that was inevitable. Again though, that proved to be counting chickens. We did get a couple of penalties though and Davis slotted one of them for us to retake the lead. Back on course.
Then came another scrum – did I mention that Leeds scrumaging hadn’t improved? Well Dad was dead cert we should have kept going and forced a penalty try. Think we were a bit far out for that though. Davis still banked another three point though.
The Chiefs try never did come, though another Davis pen meant that Leeds looked to be heading home empty handed. A late Thomas kick meant that they were able to take an LBP back north though.
After the match, Dad hit the Undercroft bogs and I can add him to the list of people I’ve been unable to find in the Undercroft. We still managed to RV at the bus stop though, even though the 5pm bus had gone well early. As it was we wound up sat on the 5:30 78 behind a couple of rather flatulent Leeds fans desperate to get the last train home.
Once home, well yes, my initial feeling was disappointment if anything, after all, the first try I saw that night was during highlights of England vs Samoa and in a match between the Chiefs and Leeds I had expected better. Then I saw the Premiership table – 6th(make that 7th at time of writing).
What can I say? Three bonus point wins clear of relegation and slap bang in the middle of the table. Not so bad.
Matt
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21/11/2010 19:11
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According to all that watch we were totally dependent on Steenson keeping us up, he gets crocked in comes Davis and really steps up to the mark now after Round 8 we are 7th with 4 wins who would have ever had thought that!!.
4 points anyway is good by me, but our Rugby is improving all the time and tries will come.
One comment I did hear on Saturday that came from a Leeds Player prior to the match is that "we haven't done bad for a Team of Nobodies"
I guess saturday gave us a different sort of problem in that for once we were favourates to win the game. As I have said on another thread my main concern was where were the tries coming from. Our defence has been top notch in the last few weeks, but we seem to find it hard to cross the ine at the other end. Taking nothing away from Leeds but as a someone said to me on saturday you never looked like scoring in open play. Maybe in that first 40 we were trying too hard and making mistakes, but last year and early this these are games we could not close out. I just hope the Leeds BP does not matter in the end.
4 points is better than 0 points.
Looking on towards Sale, we play to win again, that's how it should be and hopefully we shall prevail.
C'mon Chiefs!
This was only ever going to be a very very difficult match. Whoever I spoke to beforehand felt the same and were very nervous. Each game is a different experience, it was nervy which you could see in the players, not pretty, but never the less a good result and another examination that the players have passed.
Sale is going to be tougher still, on league position we could again be favourites, but Sale at the moment are a far better team than Leeds. So hopefully after Saturday the guys will have learnt enough to handle the favourite tag and play to there full ability, they will need to.
next Sale
