Three minutes later, having withstood the pressure, Chiefs took the lead. Initially, Hankin had been adjudged offside after picking up a loose ball at a scrum just inside the Saracens half, but the kick from Sweeney clattered against the woodwork. Naqelevuki was fastest to react, and the ball quickly spread through Lees and Sweeney only for James to narrowly fail to gather on the left, play was brought back, but Sweeney missed again. Moments later, Saracens had to make another change as Fercu replaced Ben Ransom. Exeter were growing in strength in the forwards, contributing to their opponents ongoing inability to make their advantage in territory and pressure count, as it was the Chiefs who had created the two clearest try-scoring opportunities, and though scrum half Thomas went off injured, replacement Dave Lewis was soon in the action with some snappy passing which reignited the Exeter attack.They edged ahead as they forced succesive penalties and Spencer was sin-binned for an offence at the ruck and Sweeney got the three points. Sarries ended the half on the attack, but Mordt's wayward drop goal closed the action, and summed up a frustrating first 40 minutes rather well.

 

After the break, a scintillating move from Fercu saw him collect his own delicate chip kick through, only for the move to break down, but there was no chance of that happening when Strettle latched onto a stray Ben White pass after 44 minutes and broke forward for the game's opening try, but Goode failed to convert, restricting the lead to two points. As Exeter changed their entire front row, and Scott Spurling, Kelly Brown and George Kruis entered the fray for Saracens, it didn't take long for Strettle to claim another try. A superb piece of vision saw Spencer collect the ball from a scrum 20 metres out, and rather than pass to his right, swivel to his left and put in a fine kick for Strettle to gather and advance for his second try, although Spencer missed the touchline conversion, keeping the match very much in the balance at 13-6 with 52 minutes played. With their attack clicking, Saracens were regaining the territorial advantage, and Spencer nearly set up Strettle for his hat trick as another testing kick through seemed to have Vainikolo grasping at thin air, but the Sarries winger failed to collect and the Chiefs defended the resultant lineout too.

 

It proved only a temporary respite for the Chiefs, though, as on the hour, another bit of inspired play from Spencer saw him advance from a scrum and surge down the right wing, collecting his own kick as Saracens reached the Exeter 22, with the sustained pressure culminating in de Jager going over wide on the right, and Spencer converting from the touchline for good measure for a 20-6 advantage. However, at times this season, Sarries have failed to close out games, and it looked like more of the same as Exeter belatedly rediscovered their attacking edge. With fifteen minutes to go, a measured set of phases saw Saracens keep them out at the expense of a five metre scrum, but an infringement saw Spurling yellow carded, and after sustained close range pressure, an ambitious long pass by Sweeney was held by Bodilly right on the left hand touchline to race forward and score and replacement Gareth Steenson claimed the conversion for a 20-13 scoreline with around ten minutes to go. The drama continued as James was denied what would have been a try of the season, as Steenson opted to keep the ball alive deep in his own half, and spread play to James who ran almost the whole length of the field, only to be barged into touch by Fercu, who showed the defensive side of his game as well as the attacking flair seen earlier.

 

Saracens forced a crucial penalty on half way to halt the Chiefs' momentum, only to lose the resultant lineout, allowing Exeter to mount up the phases in the middle of the pitch, although they didn't seem to be making much ground, until a half break from Vainikolo forced Sarries into desparate defence on their own line. Finding no opportunity to barge over, Exeter intelligently switched play quickly as Steenson found Bodilly for his second try, with lengthy TMO deliberations eventually determining he had grounded correctly; Steenson adding the extras to make it 20-20. Crucially, though, in the remaining two minutes, Sarries were able to play in the right area of the pitch, and when Bateman offended at the ruck, Spencer was able to close his fine LV= Cup campaign in the most memorable way possible. One memory made for Saracens, now onto Wembley, Paris and hopefully Twickenham.

 

Teams

Saracens

15 Ben Ransom (Catalin Fercu 27); 14 Mike Ellery; 13 Tim Streather (Alex Goode 19); 12 Marcelo Bosch; 11 David Strettle; 10 Nils Mordt; 9 Ben Spencer; 1 Richard Barrington (Titi Lamositele 73) ; 2 Jared Saunders (Scott Spurling 49); 3 Juan Figallo (Biyi Alo 63); 4 Maro Itoje; 5 Hayden Smith (George Kruis 49); 6 Nick De Jager; 7 Matt Hankin; 8 Ernst Joubert (Kelly Brown 49). Replacement not used: Tom Whiteley

 

Exeter Chiefs

15 Max Bodilly; 14 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 13 Adam Hughes (Byron McGuigan 40), 12 Sireli Naqelevuki (Gareth Steenson 55), 11 Tom James; 10 Ceri Sweeney (capt), 9 Haydn Thomas (Dave Lewis 33-40, 60); 1 Brett Sturgess (Carl Rimmer 50), 2 Elvis Taione (Greg Bateman 50), 3 Moray Low (Alex Brown 50); 4 Mitch Lees, 5 Jerry Sexton; 6 Ben White (Tom Johnson 59), 7 Joel Conlon (Ed Holmes 67), 8 Kai Horstmann

 

Scorers:  

SARACENS

Tries:   Strettle (2) De Jager,  Conv: Spencer;   Pen: Spencer (2)

 

EXETER

Tries: Bodilly, Steenson   Conv: Steenson(2)  Pen: Sweeney

 

Attendance: 8685

 

Referee:  Ian Davies