Exeter edged a gripping arm-wrestle of a match against their south-west rivals Bristol to move top of the Premiership table with three wins out of four. The visiting full-back Rich Lane scored a brilliant hat-trick – all created from the cultured boot of the Bears fly-half Callum Sheedy – but the Chiefs’ power and precision ultimately proved the difference.
The most recent meeting between these sides was in early September, when Exeter ran out 75-0 winners in the Premiership Rugby Cup. Bristol’s lineup was rather different that day, but even so the threat of another rout hung in the air when the Chiefs efficiently battered their way to the tryline in the third minute and the lock Rusi Tuima finished smartly.
Henry Slade converted and Exeter looked up for it, playing with pace and energy, but a couple of individual errors allowed the visitors a foothold. Sheedy reduced Bristol’s deficit with a penalty, and the fly-half applied a touch of class after 11 minutes with a low, angled grubber kick that Lane waited patiently to touch down in the corner.
A high hit by Jacques Vermeulen on Benhard Janse van Rensburg had already cost Exeter a kickable penalty before Immanuel Feyi-Waboso spilled an up-and-under from Gabriel Ibitoye, gifting the Bears a lineout. Again, the Sheedy-Lane combination proved deadly – this time the No 10 lofted his kick, and it was 13-7 to Bristol after the conversion bounced back off a post.
Slade – “training and playing like a young man” according to Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby – nearly hared over when the Chiefs tried their own cross-kick, but Harvey Skinner overcooked it. Exeter’s tighthead may be named Ehren Painter, but there was precious little artistry in the way they soon built phases into Bristol’s 22, culminating in the giant prop burrowing over, Slade again converting.
Pat Lam, Bristol’s director of rugby, saw fit to replace his entire front row after half an hour. The hooker Harry Thacker had only been on the pitch for six minutes when he was sent to the sin-bin after some persistent offending by the visitors with Exeter probing for their third try. Lam’s side managed to hold out, and at half-time the game was poised at 14-13 to Exeter.
The Bristol scrum-half Kieran Marmion was turned over in midfield a minute after the break and the Chiefs sent the ball through the hands, Tom Wyatt eventually applying a sniping finish. Another sweet conversion by Slade, and Exeter’s lead was eight.
Wyatt, though, promptly blotted his copybook by getting caught out of position in defence. Another perfectly measured kick from Sheedy dropped over the full-back’s head and was snaffled by Lane, who sprinted into space for his hat-trick. Sheedy’s first successful conversion made it a one-point game but Exeter were dominating territory and their power up front was starting to tell.
With 13 minutes left the Chiefs kicked for the corner and opted for a classic catch-and-drive. The maul collapsed once, bringing another penalty but no yellow card from the referee, Hamish Smales – but Josh Iosefa-Scott, fresh off the bench, crashed over for Exeter’s attacking bonus point.
Slade, however, erred off the tee and Bristol could hope, still within a converted score. That hope slipped away when Exeter won a scrum penalty and Slade belted the resulting kick through the posts. James Williams had a chance to earn a losing bonus point for the Bears, at least, with a straightforward penalty. He pulled it wide, Bristol were left with nothing, and he could only sheepishly raise a hand in apology to his teammates.
On missing out on a losing bonus point – and his side missing 10 points off the tee in all – Lam said: “The World Cup was won with one point in a quarter-final, one point in a semi-final, one point in a final. We all know that. It’s not rocket science to know that goal-kickers make a difference. But in saying that it’s a team thing. We missed those chances, but we also put ourselves under pressure with other areas of the game.”
Baxter was more upbeat. “The learning from today could be incredible for us,” he said. “Once the guys learn that if you stick together, and you stick at stuff, things happen – that’s the golden ticket as a coach. You want guys to believe even when it doesn’t feel like it’s working. Because that’s how you make it work.”
