The Final - Part 2 and Final part or second half of a game with 4 halves!!
The Final - Part 2 and Final Part or Second half of a game with 4 halves!
Bristol Rugby v Exeter Chiefs
Half-time score - Bristol 6 Chiefs 9
No sooner have we recovered from last Wednesday's game, when the next one looms ever closer. The second Final match will also take place infront of a capacity crowd, this time at the Memorial Stadium. The away Tribe will be there in significant numbers with voices charged and ready to cheer the Chiefs on. They may not be able to match the volume of sound produced at Sandy Park for the first match but the majority of noisy and most passionate supporters will be there. The Bristol fans will be pumping up the volume in support of their team but the Chiefs players will look to feed off this energy as well as that from their own fans.
Both sides will be looking to build on the first match and find a way through what were two solid defensive performances. DVD's will have been studied in the finest detail and training ground moves honed to perfection. I'm presuming we have the same 3rd team in charge and the ref's interpretation will have been taken on board. It's very rare to get back to back games under 'normal' circumstances let alone where the result means so much. This will test both coaches and players abilities and the team that has the most effective game plan should come out as the winner. However there's just the matter of nerves and tension to contend with. There's one Chiefs player who should have a little less on his mind this week, that's Tommy Hayes who's wife gave birth to a boy on Friday. The Chiefs will also have had chance to work on the back three who played together for the first time last wednesday.
So what sort of match can we look forward to? I guess it will be as full of passion as the first match and may well have the same close outcome. As long as this ends with a 1 point advantage to either side we can avoid going to a penalty shoot out.
The weather forcast (figures from Metcheck UK) doesn't look too bad although some light rain may make for a greasy surface and slippery ball.
Time
Temp
Rain
Wind
19:00 - 21:59
13 °c
1.4 mm
E - 4 - 5 mph
22:00 - 0:59
9 °c
3.5 mm
ENE - 4 - 5 mph
For me it's going to be a narrow Chiefs victory to bring Premiership rugby to Devon for the first time.
If it does go to extra time I think it will favour us as we definitely looked fitter than Bristol in the last 15 minutes at SP. However I have said all season that I expect it to be all square and Steeno will kick a penalty in the 3rd minute of injury time and we'll win by 3. Too tense for comfort
Tight to the end but Chiefs fitness and passion seal the deal at the last minute. Not good for the stress levels or voice boxes but great for next season and the Tigers at SP.
touchline johnny - rolling-maul MB All to play for and, having watched last week's match again last night, the defences were both awesome - it was the decision making that let them (both?) down.
I just hope the Andy Small and his team know what do if it's all drawn after normal, and then extra time!!!
I don't care that you think Bristol will win by whatever margin. What any of us think is largely irrelevant, it's what happens on the pitch that counts; if you know that in advance then well done.
Exeter Chiefs will field an unchanged side for tonight’s second and deciding leg of the Championship final.
With just three points separating the two teams following Chiefs’ narrow 9-6 victory last Wednesday, the winner of tonight’s game will most probably achieve the ultimate prize of Premiership rugby in 2010/11.
And head coach Rob Baxter has elected to field the same starting XV and bench that played last week after they survived a late change among the backs, as well as the pressure of an expectant 10,000-strong home crowd and playing under floodlights in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
He said: “It is pretty simple for us now. We have just got to go out and play a game of rugby. This bunch of players and their attitude they can play anywhere.
“You cannot defend a three-point lead! We have said all along that we are not in the final to be safe; we are going to play to win it. It’s about attacking the game and doing what we do very well, which is playing rugby.
“We had a re-shuffle in the back-line because we had an injury in the team run. We had not played in a televised game this season, but Bristol had. We don’t play evening fixtures. We dealt with all that extremely well. In fact, we seemed to relish it and we will be better prepared tonight.
“In some ways the late changes were the biggest positive for us. That backline had literally five minutes at the end of the team run with each other. They thought Bryan (Rennie) had a bloody nose; they did not think they would have to play in that formation the next day”.
Baxter concluded: “We won the last game and we played in a way that won us the game. If we play in a way that win’s us the game tonight, we will be happy!”
Tonight’s game is being shown live on Sky Sports 4 and Sky Sports 4 HD, and is also being broadcast on BBC Radio Devon and BBC Radio Devon online at www.bbc.co.uk/devon.
The Sky coverage will be shown on the big screen in the County Suite at Sandy Park. The bar will open at 6pm.
Exeter Chiefs v Bristol Rugby
Championship final
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 – KO 7.45pm
Memorial Stadium
15 Mark Foster
14 Matt Jess
13 Nic Sestaret
12 Phil Dollman
11 Paul McKenzie
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Neil Clark
3 Hoani Tui
4 Tom Hayes (capt)
5 James Hanks
6 Chad Slade
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Richie Baxter
16 Simon Alcott
17 Chris Budgen
18 David Gannon
19 Tom Johnson
20 Clive Stuart-Smith
21 Danny Gray
22 Matt Cornwell
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