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For me, home advantage means we might just edge it, Chiefs 24 - 18 Tigers. BWDIK.

I genuinely have no idea how to call this...

Loyalty dictates a chiefs win, but perhaps more than a score is optimistic!

But im feeling lucky.

Chiefs 34 Tigers 18

It always depends on the weather, owing to the nature of Sandy Park. But I think we will edge it 27-21.

With a moderate E breeze and dry, sunny conditions forecast should hopefully be an entertaining running game. Hoping for a start similar to our big win over Sarries last season. A strong Chiefs team and bench. Good to see Frosty has recovered from his ankle problem from last weekend.

Chiefs 33 - 21 Tigers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:09:20:13:26:26 by Ljs399.

Chiefs win 25-22.

15 Josh Hodge

14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso

13 Ben Hammersley

12 Joe Hawkins

11 Olly Woodburn

10 Harvey Skinner

9 Niall Armstrong


1 Scott Sio (c)

2 Dan Frost

3 Ehren Painter

4 Rusi Tuima

5 Richard Capstick

6 Ethan Roots

7 Ross Vintcent

8 Greg Fisilau


Replacements:

16 Jack Yeandle

17 Will Goodrick-Clarke

18 Josh Iosefa-Scott

19 Jack Dunne

20 Christ Tshiunza

21 Tom Cairns

22 Will Haydon-Wood

23 Paul Brown-Bampoe


Tigers

15 Freddie Steward [88]

14 Josh Bassett [15]

13 Izaia Perese *

12 Solomone Kata [19]

11 Ollie Hassell-Collins [22]

10 Jamie Shillcock [26]

9 Jack van Poortvliet [73]

1 Nicky Smith *

2 Charlie Clare [95]

3 Joe Heyes [141]

4 Harry Wells [199]

5 Ollie Chessum (C) [56]

6 Hanro Liebenberg [107]

7 Olly Cracknell [43]

8 Kyle Hatherell [20]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Finn Theobald-Thomas [9]

17 James Cronin [34]

18 Dan Cole [323]

19 Côme Joussain *

20 Tommy Reffell [114]

21 Ben Youngs [314]

22 Ben Volavola *

23 Dan Kelly [81]

Let’s hope for a dry day as I think it gives us our best opportunity of winning if we keep to ball alive and play a totally attack minded game plan. Tigers main weapon is their driving maul and we could playing a much smaller back 5 in the pack be vulnerable to the catch and drive, hence discipline will play a massive part tomorrow.
A difficult one to call with so many of our key men out and whilst I am hopeful , think it will go either way by a single score.
Chiefs 27 Tigers 31 hope I’m wrong.

Home advantage makes me cautiously optimistic - Chiefs 25 Leicester 20

Chiefs 25 Tigers 22

Not very confident especially if we kick our possession away and give away a lot of penalties. We have been poor lately defending driving mauls.Got to go for the win though Chiefs 31 Leicester 26

Heart over head.
Exeter 30 - 27 Leicester

Chiefs 24, Tigers 22

With a decent forecast and a strong team out we edge Chiefs 30 Tigers 24

If the weather deteriorates we loose

Chiefs 36 - 28 Tigers

I am ever hopeful so Chiefs 35 Tigers 34

Chiefs 28 Tigers 18

Hopefully our pack play as well as last season. Get our wingers in the game and we look dangerous.
Chiefs 34 Tigers. 19

pleased with what side we have but i think Leicester will be a different kettle of fish this season. Their bench looks good and just cant see us hanging in there for the 80mins. a close game but its tigers by 10 for me. 27- 17 hope i am completely wrong.

Head ruling heart Exe 32 - 24 Tigers but I have been known to be wrong on occasions!

Not confident for this one! Our back five, witt the exception of rus, look pretty lightweight in comparison to tigers as do our centres. We'll miss the experience and talent of Henry and Jacques too, who wouldn't! Chiefs 14 tigers 30. Hopefully though, tigers won't bother to show up like last year!

Chiefs 29 - 25 Tigers

Always a tough call, but I've been impressed with our running game IF our wings are properly used. I think we'll edge it. Chiefs 32 Tiggers 24 ... No losing BP ... But I might be wrong!

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.

All depends on the weather, stay dry and our mobility we be an asset if we can move the ball. A wet day will mean their power pack will be in the ascendancy. All technique in the pack today, get it right and we will hold them.
Dry see us winning, wet a probable lbp.
But it’s the first game so not the end of the world for either result.

Hopefully home advantage gives us the edge - Chiefs 24 Tigers 20

Chiefs 28 Tigers 24

In hope

Chiefs 19 - 31 Tigers. Hope to be proved wrong (as usual)

More tap and go stupidity........

Quote:

Midlands_chief
More tap and go stupidity........

Agree, missed opportunity to throw out wide and walk in

Got what we deserved from that one.
Hope Armstrong injury isn't as bad as it looked.

Agree Exeterfan we never learn Armstrong should have come off you could see he was struggling with a injury a bit like Townsend a couple of years ago left on and spent months off injured. I fear we wont see him now for a while just when hes clicking. As for the game the turning point was a kick not making the line only to see them scoring just after we lost the momentum and it was a uphill struggle. Not to many complaints i thought it would pan out like that and we played a good match. It could have gone either way and it was not our day .

A game we would have won 9 times out of 10 and to lose to a team who made zero line breaks the whole game sums up the disappointment. The game turned imo on one crazy decision by the captain - a penalty on halfway where Hodge could comfortably kick to put us 14 points up and we should regain possession, instead Skinner misses touch and 4 plays later Tigers score - dreadful game management. Our inability to get the ball wide from close range is once again embarrassing and costing us points either Brown or MIW one on one it’s a try.
I thought Tigers defended well enough in the main but so many opportunities butchered.
The one sour point from me is how Foley allowed them to run the clock down in the sin bin period by taking the knee or delaying the line out without stopping the clock, I think the ball was in play for 3m in that period, zero empathy for the game or he was taking a breather.

Shame about the early injuries but Ollie did well in the centre, we just failed to play open rugby in the second half hence we got turned over and the last play because of a high shot sums up the disappointment.
In summary, some good stuff just not clinical enough in the end. Taking Roots off was bizarre when we needed his tackling and physicality for the final minutes.

Agree Andy the management needs a kick up the ass sometimes it wasn't rocket science to let Hodge kick the ball thats where the game was lost.

Can’t get too critical or analytical over this first game. No doubt many will but there were a number of positives and let’s not forget that our outside backs were disrupted early on, compounded when it’s your 13 who goes off. Games aren’t won on stats but I reckon some will look encouraging with much to build on.

That was a pretty tough match. If all games are that hard we’re going to struggle to put out a full team by the end of the season.
On the plus side, Manny F-W and Paul B-B look frighteningly good. Both of them are really hard to put down and they make significant metres in contact. It’s just a shame that once we get the ball to any of the back three we can’t seem to get the final pass away and, in Josh Hodge’s case, we too often get turned over. I’m glad to see that Joe Hawkins is starting to look like the player we all thought he was, and is looking much more comfortable in the 12 shirt. Overall our defence is looking pretty strong too, so that’s another reason to be cheerful.
On the minus side, our game management deserted us at crucial moment. Freddie Steward’s rescue of Harvey’s touch kick was an exceptional piece of play, but others are right - either Harvey had to be less ambitious or we should have given the ball to Josh to kick. Worse, though, is the decision to tap and go from 5 metres. The first “trick” play was ludicrously ponderous and Jack Yeandle’s effort later on was typically appalling. As ever, he rushes off without any support and before long we get turned over. The coaches need to get a grip on this and forbid Jack from taking a tap ball on pain of death! However, our worst failing is still our habit of giving needless penalties away at the breakdown. This seems to be ingrained in the team and if we persist with it, it’s very difficult to see us having a successful season. Other teams probably already know about our weakness in this area and we will be increasingly targeted unless we clean up our act.
Onwards and upwards!

Devastated to hear sausage rolls are off the menu too.. at least the music was turned down..

With the injuries to Jenkins and Vermulan there was no leader on the pitch

You would hope Harvey would of stepped up but he disappointed again

Easy summary: either Hepher goes (1 man) or the spectators will (in their hundreds).

Worst attacking display in living memory.

Points thrown away. 14 - 3 up and lose to a side who made no clean breaks, kicked poorly in general, had two cards - one yellow and one red. Face it coaches our senior players do not lead, Yenz is frankly often a liability with ball in hand taking penalties 5m from the line. Season after season it happens. Before Skinns, who was ineffectual for much of the game took the pen and misses touch he was clearly suffering with injury or illness. Armstrong looked crocked and bizarrely played on - presumably becoming more crocked. Our giant props may scrummage well although they gave away the key penalty on their line but could be outrun by most schoolboys so why were they often receiving breakdown ball in the middle of the pitch? Even worse they are standing still when they receive the ball. last moan on what was quite a disappointing loss is that telegraphed looped passes allow defences to drift and rarely work When our backs do make half beaks passing to support is preferable to dying with the ball. Leicester took their few chances better than we did and defended well. We have growing injury problems and I think some selection ones, One very good point was that the noise level had been much reduced - well done for that.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2024:09:21:22:39:24 by cornwallchief.

I thought that despite the loss there were some positives! Thanks CC, think I’ll reach for the bottle tonight. Unbelievable, some of the negative comments in general. Do people not think that those involved don’t ’get It’. Social media gone mad, no longer is pub talk kept for the pub, unfortunately

"Do people not think that those involved don’t ’get It’. "

That's the problem, those involved, ie Hepher, don't get it !

Quote:

Rowancroft73
I thought that despite the loss there were some positives! Thanks CC, think I’ll reach for the bottle tonight. Unbelievable, some of the negative comments in general. Do people not think that those involved don’t ’get It’. Social media gone mad, no longer is pub talk kept for the pub, unfortunately

The problems didn’t just start on Saturday, they have been going on for a long time. Is it the style of play, coaches or players.

To lose to that Leicester team was poor, answers need to be coming fast.

Agree with many of the comments. The game managent is part of the culture and that comes from the coaches. It really is time for Yenz to retire and we must find an alternative 10. If Hepher is head coach then he needs to be the first out of the door. It appears to be playing by numbers and any individuals to be squashed.

The writing was on the wall in last week's game where we struggled to down a poor Ulster 2nd XV which the final score rather glossed over.

In response to the above it is quite clear that some don't get it. Yeandle's repeated tap and go penalties when we should have scrummed the ball as we were well on top on our own put-in is one example. The fact that the coaches allow this to happen time after time is another indication of them not getting it either.

It is now a very short season and by the time we have been to Northampton and Saracens we may well have one point where we should have had seven. That is enough to make the difference between play offs and sixth or seventh come the end of the season.

What is really worrying about that is that our better players will be targeted by other clubs and as they become disillusioned about playing in a system that stifles creativity and rewards mediocrity, they will look to leave for more rewarding coaches (this has already happened with the drift to Sale).

This will leave us as a feeder club to better run and financed clubs, constantly being a "bottom feeder" and losing supporters who are also fed up with the sort of dross that was served up yesterday for 60 minutes out of eighty.

It is time that Rob grasped the nettle, changed the attack coach and gave the players their heads within a clearly structured game plan which starts with "Win the game on the scoreboard before pratting about with tap and goes and similar proven inefficient tactics".

Hi Rowancroft 73. All good with your post. I do not do social media other than this site and family whatsapps. I support the chiefs get my season tickets every year and travel 200 miles each time I come to a match. My posts you perceive as negative but they are born out of total frustration. We play a lot of decent play in many matches but the same problems arise each match. Our pack at set piece has improved dramatically under our newish scrum coach - excellent. The general back play has not improved. I have been whittering about it for a couple of seasons. So much potential lost. Back play is not only about defence but also space, when to run into it, how to use it, and when to pass or not. Yesterday we faced a good blitz defence. Our kicking was good in that we did not just kick long to Steward and co but there were no short dinks to make them think and when we created potential overlaps or we got into space we forgot the basics and preferred contact or mazy loopy passes instead of quick hands thus committing a defender.. Our biggest talented players play as individuals not collectively. Yenz is absolutely not a leader, nor the future. Frost may be, I am unconvinced but emerging talents Norey and Innard have disappeared. Our best tighthead potentially is Street who I expect will be off without being in the regular 23. It has gone on for so long - it is so maddening. I do not know whether Hepher is the problem as B/A says. We have Rob on a pedestal and tend to denigrate Hepher. They did win the double a few years back together and maybe they are best mates. All I can see is we play our Heroes well past their sell by dates. Thinks of Whitts and now Yenz. Club legends yes but coaches favourites too perhaps. Somewhere in that set up of ours something is wrong.

I'd be interested to see how many of Yeandles 5m tap and go attempts have resulted in tries over the last couple of seasons.

Very few indeed I suspect. The backs surely must be getting @#$%& off with giving the forwards field position which is used so wastefully.

Ive rarely come away from watching a match, especially an opening match, as deflated as I was yesterday.

We should have won that comfortably.

We badly miss Henry tbh.

Anyway, well done tigers for taking their chances.

In our last home game last season against Quins the game was tight. We got a yellow card and then won a couple of penalties and kicked the points. They were then chasing the game and it opened up and we won comfortably. Yesterday we opted to pick and go or kick for the corners instead of taking the points. A 20 point to 10 lead could have won us the game and give us a shot at more points.
Badly missed Henry and Jacques yesterday for leadership and grunt!

Just watched the game on TV this morning. There were, as with every game, good bits and bad bits. The crowd seemed in good form and the music volume was noticeably lower (albeit, it's still that awful disco sh*te.)

As others have said, we need to take points when they're on offer and stop faffing about with tap & go's. I get that it's important to try to get BP's but surely it's more important to win the match.

The ref had a bit of a mixed day; despite Healey blathering on, I thought he got the Kata and WHW decisions right, but the penalty against Kelly for the supposed head-on-head with IFW was ridiculous. On the other hand, Cole should have been carded for pulling down our maul 2m from the line.

An opposition view.

Yesterday could really have gone either way.

The early injuries to Hammersley and Armstrong obviously disrupted things for you.

Without 3 key leaders in Slade, Jenkins & Vermelun it was a relatively young side.

Baxter to me when interviewed is excellent, not sure how much of the coaching he does nowadays?
Don’t know that much about Hepher so won’t comment.

The tapped penalties to me are very inventive, vary the point of contact and if you are not 100% sure on your Scrum or Lineout seem a sensible option to me. I thought most of the Scrums were 50:50 and certain there was an attacking Exe scrum that Tigers won a penalty at? A dogged defence and giving away Penalties for which Tigers received a final warning were the only reasons you didn’t score more tries.

Early days for both teams and wish you luck for the rest of the season (apart from your visit to MWWR!)

Unfortunately the image in the previous attempt at posting this was unreadable so here goes, again.

Well done to Big Chief Little Chief for kicking off the season with a creditable 4 points

Quote:

Chief Fire Water

Quote:

Rowancroft73
I thought that despite the loss there were some positives! Thanks CC, think I’ll reach for the bottle tonight. Unbelievable, some of the negative comments in general. Do people not think that those involved don’t ’get It’. Social media gone mad, no longer is pub talk kept for the pub, unfortunately

The problems didn’t just start on Saturday, they have been going on for a long time. Is it the style of play, coaches or players.

To lose to that Leicester team was poor, answers need to be coming fast.

Very disrespectful bearing in mind Tigers had 13 internationals in their 23 but don’t know why I’m surprised

Quote:

A2O

Quote:

Chief Fire Water

Quote:

Rowancroft73
I thought that despite the loss there were some positives! Thanks CC, think I’ll reach for the bottle tonight. Unbelievable, some of the negative comments in general. Do people not think that those involved don’t ’get It’. Social media gone mad, no longer is pub talk kept for the pub, unfortunately

The problems didn’t just start on Saturday, they have been going on for a long time. Is it the style of play, coaches or players.

To lose to that Leicester team was poor, answers need to be coming fast.

Very disrespectful bearing in mind Tigers had 13 internationals in their 23 but don’t know why I’m surprised

Doesn't matter how many internationals you have in your side both teams played sh*te, Leicester just had one fewer brain f*rt.

Just watched the game and thought there new centre Perese was lucky to get away with his tackle on Vintcent, looked like a swinging arm.
Also how slow Tigers were getting to line outs, the crowd didn’t like it and the ref did nothing to chivvy them on.
There was also a number of penalties in the red zone which never got past a warning.
We should have took the points from those penalties but white line fever kicked in!

We haven’t replaced Steeno, Rob feels we have enough coaches to cover it.

At least we didn't have to suffer 'Sweet Effin Caroline' again

And those substitutions? Don't get ti.

Quote:

Not Manichean
I'd be interested to see how many of Yeandles 5m tap and go attempts have resulted in tries over the last couple of seasons.
Very few indeed I suspect. The backs surely must be getting @#$%& off with giving the forwards field position which is used so wastefully.

50% of all tries this season have come from tap and go

Quote:

mommentum

Quote:

Not Manichean
I'd be interested to see how many of Yeandles 5m tap and go attempts have resulted in tries over the last couple of seasons.
Very few indeed I suspect. The backs surely must be getting @#$%& off with giving the forwards field position which is used so wastefully.

50% of all tries this season have come from tap and go

The more interest statistic might be how many 5 metre opportunities have been blown by poorly executed tap and go plays…

Quote:

mommentum

Quote:

Not Manichean
I'd be interested to see how many of Yeandles 5m tap and go attempts have resulted in tries over the last couple of seasons.
Very few indeed I suspect. The backs surely must be getting @#$%& off with giving the forwards field position which is used so wastefully.

50% of all tries this season have come from tap and go

Thats because its a default option. As 691 says, how many were attempted and blown last season and this.

the scrum should be a good platform, but not when it gives away penalties 5m out, and the lineout is 50/50