When a flagpole-bending gale blows in off the Exe estuary rugby becomes a different game. This felt like a ‘10-point wind’ in terms of the first-half lead Exeter would have ideally wanted so when the hosts were 12-7 behind at the interval their fate appeared to be sealed. So much for that supposed theory as the Chiefs staged a storming comeback to reach the last eight of this constantly fluctuating Champions Cup campaign.
Bath will be kicking themselves, having been outscored 14-3 with the elements at their back. At precisely the moment they needed to turn the screw their composure increasingly deserted them as Exeter’s self-belief correspondingly grew. If it did not help the visitors’ tactically when their star fly-half Finn Russell departed with an early groin injury, this was a match his remaining colleagues really should have closed out.
