London Welsh
Exeter v London Welsh - Play-off Preview
By Mark W-J
March 24 2010
If the aim of the Championship play-offs is to generate excitement across the whole division at the season enters spring, then last week’s fixtures were an unqualified success. Welsh’s four-try win over Doncaster was followed by Bees’ first win of the season against Moseley, who had finished their league campaign by beating Bristol, before Nottingham shocked Exeter with a 20-9 win at Meadow Lane.
That defeat has undoubtedly made our task on Saturday even harder than it already was. While rumours of the Chiefs’ demise were echoing around cyberspace on Sunday evening, it’s worth remembering that they’ve lost fewer than 25% of their league fixtures over the last six years and collected an average of four points per game from the first half of this season: if they’re to maintain that record this year, they’ll have to complete the rest of the group stage unbeaten with four try bonuses to boot. They’ll also be hurting from our 12-10 win at ODP on 2nd January, only our third victory in the fixture in the last 21 meetings in league and cup. We haven’t won away at Exeter since October 2000, in Adrian Davies’ first season in charge, although we’ve collected a losing bonus point from three of our four visits to Sandy Park. We’ll gloss-over the 53-5 drubbing in 2007-08…
The Chiefs’ home record of just five defeats in four seasons since leaving the County Ground at the end of the 2005-06 season is another factor that will strike fear into the heart of the travelling supporters. Prior to Bristol’s 27-16 win over Christmas, they’d lost only to Leeds (in 2006-07 and 2008-09) and Northampton (2007-08) – in each case, the team who had finished the season as Champions, or, in Bristol’s case, league leaders and number one seeds. The one anomaly is the identity of the first visiting team to leave Sandy Park with a win – namely Waterloo, who were relegated at the end of the 2006-07 with only three wins to their name, one of them a 22-13 success at Exeter including a try for Peter Murchie.
Exeter finished the first half of this season as runners-up to Bristol, with an identical record of 19 wins and three defeats. Their 88 points were four fewer than their rivals, with 11 try bonuses and a solitary loss bonus at ODP, but this meant that they finished a full 26 points clear of Welsh in 3rd. The Chiefs did, however, have the best attack in the league, with 699 points scored and a points difference of +339. Right wing Matt Jess, who scored their second try in our last meeting, finished with 12 tries to his name – one more than Errie Claassens - while left wing Mark Foster and club captain Richard Baxter bagged nine apiece. But their key attacking weapon was the boot of Ulsterman Gareth Steenson, whose 202 league points at a rate of 82.8% saw him complete over 1,000 points in just four seasons at this level.
Defensively, while the 360 points and 40 tries conceded are comparable to Welsh’s record (376 points, also 40 tries) the Chiefs’ ability to keep fifteen men on the field has been key. They received only four yellow cards over 22 games – there were 129 players binned in the 132 league matches as a whole, at an average of nearly 11 per club. Coincidentally, Welsh received 11 yellows, including playing five minutes with only 13 men during January’s meeting, but it was when the Chiefs were reduced to 14 in the dying moments that Guy Mercer crashed over for the all-important score, crucially converted by Gordon Ross.
That game was their third consecutive defeat, their worst run since a four game losing streak exactly four years earlier. Coincidentally, that run also concluded at ODP, but on that occasion it resulted in the dismissal of head coach, Ian Bremner. His successor, Peter Drewett, was removed from his post twelve months ago after a string of disappointing results saw the Chiefs concede the title to Leeds and, as a result of a double-header with Moseley, crash out of the knockout cup. Drewett’s assistant, club legend Rob Baxter, was promoted to the hotseat and with his brother Rich continuing to break club records the dynasty lives on. To date, the fans have continued to support the coach, even through the barren spell over Christmas and New Year, but rather like Martin Johnson’s England, it will be interesting to see whether the goodwill earned over a distinguished playing career is diminished by any long-term failure as a coach to meet the clear-cut objectives – in Exeter’s case, promotion to the Premiership – and whether Chairman Tony Rowe’s reputation would survive being the man to show the club legend the door.
For Welsh, this weekend is a chance to build on a season which is surpassing expectation on almost a weekly basis. Finishing the season in 3rd place means we are – on paper at least – ranked 15th in the country, our best-ever standing in league rugby. The almost clinical demolition of Doncaster, demonstrating the patience in pursuit of the all-important bonus point which was missing against Llanelli, showed a maturity that was sometimes missing earlier in the season. While victory at Exeter would be a result to cherish, another losing bonus point would be a very acceptable return. The abbreviated format of the play-off leagues means that bonus points will be all-important, and it’s already clear that one away win could have massive implications for who proceeds to the knockout stages and who doesn’t. As if Exeter didn’t have enough motivation already…
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:03:24:21:20:24 by Dragons' Den.
that us Chiefs come away with the spoils.
Good luck !!!!
Quote:Geronimo Jim
An excellent preview, can't wait now!
Geronimo Jim. This is Typical of M W-J pre-match previews. Always compelling and informative. As you say "can't wait now" So let's bring it on. C'MON YOU WELSH. but be aware, be very very aware, OF EXETER. PADDYTAF.
Quote:minuteman
Great preview IMHO it's gonna be a cracker . I hope however
that us Chiefs come away with the spoils.
Good luck !!!!
minuteman. Thank you for you good wishes. As i've said in other posts including this one "can't wait for Saturday" May the best team win. Good luck to you guys as well. PADDYTAF.
London Welsh name a virtually unchanged team to play Exeter Chiefs this weekend with coach Danny Wilson keeping faith with the team that played so well against Doncaster last Saturday to gain a bonus point win.
London Welsh Team for Exeter Chiefs
D Williams, C Whitehead, L Ward, M Corker, M Powell, J Mills ©, M Hills, L Beach
N Runciman, G Ross, E Claassens, C Gower, D Shabbo, P Sampson, A Thomas
Replacements: B Gotting, R Boot, G O’Meara, P Mackey, S Whatling, G Evans
[www.exeterchiefs.co.uk]
The multiple changes in the second half by Exeter gave to much impitus to them and our subs were badly timed,so the score flattered to some extent!
This was a relality check! No easy games!
Quote:londonbound
This was a relality check! No easy games!
You expected yesterday to be easy ??????????????????
Quote:Mark W-J
There's a write-up on the Chiefs' site by a Chris Doe - any relation...?
[www.exeterchiefs.co.uk]
Not as far as I am aware otherwise I would have tried to get in without paying the £17!
As said above, a really tough Exeter team that dominated our pack in the second half. It was then impossible for the backs to make any impact on the game. Disappointment that we slipped from a creditable 4-1 loss to a 5-0 loss, bonus points are going to be vital.
Inspite of the result it wasa really good day out and due to the SC coach being almost full we could offer a reduced fare to EVERYONE.
Hopefully we can do the same for the trip to Nottingham on 13th April. 07989 784082 to book your place.
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