Dean Richards, the Newcastle director of rugby, could not hide his frustration after Callum Chick was sent off during the first half before Exeter pilfered the points late on to move ominously towards the play-off places. Chick, the Falcons captain and No 8, was shown a red card by the referee Christophe Ridley in the 25th minute for a high shot on Josh Hodge, Exeter’s erstwhile Newcastle full-back.
Richards queried the haste with which the officials decided that Chick’s shoulder had made contact with Hodge’s head, arguing that the offence warranted no more than a yellow card. Newcastle fought valiantly with 14 men and were on course for a famous victory until the closing stages when the Exeter captain, Joe Simmonds, kicked a penalty to win it.
Richards, the former England captain said: “Josh Hodge clearly dropped his height. One of the issues we’re having at the moment is they’re trying to get to a really quick decision, rather than the correct decision.
“I would have accepted a yellow card, but you can’t make such a critical decision in such a big game as this, as quickly as they did. I thought it was really poor from them. You need to take the time to make the decision correctly, but they don’t want to spend time on TMO decisions. When you’re playing with people’s livelihoods and careers, you can’t do that.”
Rob Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby, said: “It’s not about whether it’s an accident or not. It’s a matter of contact to the head and it gets dealt with that way.”
Defeat felt cruel on Newcastle on an emotionally fraught afternoon at a bitterly cold, windswept Kingston Park. Before kick-off, the retiring club legend Mark Wilson was introduced to the crowd and was given a rapturous reception as he walked across the pitch with his children, son Zach and daughter Ella.
The passing of Steve Black, the hugely popular former Falcons coach, sports psychologist and mentor to Jonny Wilkinson and Danny Cipriani, was also marked. As an image of the man universally known as Blackie was shown on Kingston Park’s big screen, the stadium announcer said: “Blackie, you were a true one-off, a north-east sporting legend who will never be forgotten.”
Intriguingly, among the crowd was a sizeable contingent from the Argentinian club Champagnat’s Under-19 side, who are on tour in England. They took up a block of seats in the West Stand and sang their songs with gusto, supporting Exeter’s former Falcon Santiago Grondona, who hails from the same area near Buenos Aires.
Newcastle opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when Will Haydon-Wood seized on an errant Exeter offload and showed impressive pace to race 80 metres inside the left channel to cross the line, outpacing Hodge en route. Kingston Park erupted and Haydon-Wood then did superbly well to boot the conversion from close to the touchline.
Two minutes later, though, Hodge fielded a high bomb in midfield and was caught high by Chick, who was shown a red card after consultation with Claire Hodnett, the television match official. Exeter sought to capitalise on their numerical advantage and went close when Hodge grubbered into the left corner for Tom O’Flaherty, who could only knock on just yards from the line. But as the interval approached, the Chiefs were not to be denied.
A scrum penalty led to Baxter’s team kicking to the left corner for a lineout five metres out and from the subsequent maul Patrick Schickerling emerged from a thicket of bodies to barrel expertly over the line. Simmonds applied the conversion to level matters at 7-7 at half-time, when Hodge was replaced at full-back by Facundo Cordero.
Exeter began to dominate territory and three minutes into the second half they scored again when Jack Innard finished off from a lineout rolling maul inside the right channel. Simmonds could not convert but Newcastle roused themselves and hit back with a second try of their own in exhilarating fashion as the hooker George McGuigan charged over the line from close range after excellent work from George Wacokecoke and Matías Orlando.
After Simmonds’s late penalty handed Exeter victory, Baxter said: “Over four games now, we’ve collected 12 points and are up to fifth. That shows you how important today was.”
