By Big Bob
November 27 2010

With the Chiefs winning thier third consecutive Aviva Premiership match and sitting mid table as a result, you would think that Big Bob would be happy, but ..

For the second week in a row I have watched the Chiefs win and gain four valuable points but have still walked away feeling mildly disappointed. For the second week in a row we gave away a late penalty to allow the opposition to walk away with a losing bonus point, and of course today we missed out on a fourth try and a winning bonus. Should I feel bad at myself, I don’t think so – we aren’t just making up the numbers and we need aim high.

Don’t get me wrong, Sale are not just making up the numbers either - is anyone? – and it was terrific defence that  kept the Chiefs at bay. We were fortunate that Sheridan and Cueto were on England duty, they could well have changed things.  My son  has EA Rugby Game for his Playstation in which Ben Cohen features heavily, it was pleasing that he did not feature much today thanks to our defence. As a quick side-track , there are rumours that EA Games will release another rugby computer game soon, and if we are still in the Premiership, as we should be, then that could include us – imagine being able to control Budgie or Scaysbrook and hurl them into the oppositions face’s! – As they do every week – both had great games today.

I see from yesterday’s Rugby Times that the Chiefs had two players in the top five most accurate kickers with Ryan Davis at number 1 and Steeno at 4. Ryan’s accuracy was a bit down today but clearly the wind was a major factor, with the woodwork troubled several times in the match, but not when Sale scored a “dubious” penalty – I just hope that the kick is on the TV so we can all see if Andrew Small got it right, and he was so nice to use when we played Bristol! Without wishing in any way to question Rob’s judgement – why was Ryan kept on for approaching ten minutes when it looked like he needed to come off?

I thought that Rob made the right call in starting Jason Shoemark and also Nic Sestaret, who certainly had a lot of energy. Our first try was “a bit tasty” I was certainly not disappointed by that!  It was also good to see Andrew Higgins score his first try for us, hopefully the first of many.

Wasps are leading Bath as I type this and we are 7^th in the table on 22 points – which is just 7 points behind second placed London Irish, I am not disappointed by this! I seem to remember Rob speaking at a member’s forum about how he hoped that we would not be in the relegation dog fight at the end of the season; at the time I thought that this was wishful thinking but he may be right – he normally is! – In five games time it will become obvious why  he left Ryan on for ten minutes it’s just that being mortal I can’t see it now!

It was a pity that the crowd was slightly down on last week but it was really cold and may be people wanted to stay in and watch England get beaten! Also the crowd of over 7,000 is not to be sniffed at, unless you have a cold.  I also need to say that the 16^th man has been in good voice for the last two weeks.

For the second week in a row  one of the Super Saturday teams has come from Cornwall with Camborne today and Penryn last week – both clubs have come a long way to see the Chiefs  this has to be good for us and indeed them – Premiership Rugby in Devon who’d have thought it!

Hat’s off – but only for a few seconds due to the cold, to the ground staff and the new pitch cover which appeared to have worked a treat. My son and I entered and left via the new east turnstile yet another example of the club moving forward – and without council money! One person not using the east turnstile was the Sale Sharks owner – did he land his helicopter on the training pitch again? Fly in, watch your team get beaten and then fly out again – can’t be bad!

On such a cold day would the players use the ice pool afterwards? From the Rugby Times I see that an ice pool and a plastic pitch are on Bath’s wanted list for their new training centre – is this an example of catch-up rugby? J

I started by saying that I was mildly disappointed, let me finish by referring back to John Lockyer’s comments at the summer bbq for the then Friends of Exeter Rugby Club at the Blue Ball pub – he told the “crowd” to enjoy the following season. John, if you read this, I am enjoying every minute of it. Just being a small part of such a great club that is so obviously growing and moving in the right direction is fantastic! Thanks to everyone at the club for what you are doing.