Exeter Chiefs
Caught on an off day
Chiefs
By ExTeddChief
January 7 2013
ExTeddChief reports on Exeter Chiefs 'off day' v Saints
Caught on an off day
Chiefs 19 Saints 30
As of my Dad’s birthday I officially owed him a ticket to the next Chiefs home match he could get to. Well on the day of the Scarlets game he was Stateside. We were all on our way back home from Chester during the Bath match so finally 2013 came round and I was able to settle that debt.
So up early so we could head for a swim followed by brunch at the Chevalier Inn, chilling out for a bit at my place, picking up my grandfather and then three generations of the Family Tribe boarded the C Bus and it was wagons to Sandy Park. The Chiefs had wound up in an interesting position. Bottom half of the table wasn’t really what anyone had had in mind a month or two back but we were on our turf against a Northampton said that was only one point ahead of us. Ready to roll in the South West Comms Stand(I was perfectly loud Big Chief, couldn’t hear the rest of the stand but there were a lot of Saints fans around!). Time to get ready to rumble.
Well we certainly started the game well enough though the Saints proved to be stubborn gits. First eyebrow raising moment of the game? Dad being confused at how it was possible to get a penalty from a scrum. He’s played rugby, I haven’t. Talking about penalties though, the Saints eventually conceded one in kicking range and Steeno opened the scoring.
The Saints seemingly had us on the back foot in no time though. “Get it out of there guys”. Preferably not by kicking it down a Saint’s throat though. A few quick passes later and Ken Pisi proved unstoppable, Stephen Myler converting. Not long after that, Myler slotted a pen and we were in trouble.
The Chiefs seemed to be going nowhere fast. The Saints proved to be much more productive. Myler was given two pens before the end. The first one went “clang”. The second one went through. Finally though it seemed the game might be going our way when Dylan Hartley got binned and Steeno slotted the resulting pen. We couldn’t come up with anything else before half time though.
Back in the Wigwam, reloading with beers, well the last time Dad was at Sandy Park was the Quins match and this was quite a step down. Rob would have had plenty of reasons to snark in the dressing room but a turnaround was still doable.
With the Saints still a man down at the start of the second half, the Chiefs surged forward and Steeno slotted another pen. The comeback was on. Or at least it might have been had things not gotten messy at the other end and Myler not been able to slot another pen. You never count the Chiefs out though and when it was announced that Sirelli was coming on just as Steeno slotted his fourth kick I gave an extra loud cheer.
Forward came the Chiefs...but they came forward with varying degrees of stupidity and every attack we came up with kept falling apart and Saints held on before going up the other end where Soane Tonga’uiha rumbled over the line, Myler converting.
The Chiefs weren’t quite done yet though, went back on the attack, eventually Sirelli got the ball in the far corner and Bob Marley was soon on the sound system! “Don’t worry about a thing”? The job wasn’t done yet though Nacho’s conversion helped.
It was the Saints though that had the last laugh. Gerit-Jan van Velze got a third try which Myler converted. One last Chiefs flurry came to nothing.
Not the best Chiefs performance of all time and not a good time for such a performance. Bottom half of the table, relegation is still not a serious concern but it would be nice for our appearance in the Heineken Cup this season to not be a flash in the pan. Talking of Europe’s biggest club competition the next order of business is a mission impossible to Clemont. Then Leinster swing here for what’ll probably be a dead rubber, then its LV Cup time. That should give Rob enough time to sort things out.
Fingers crossed.
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07/01/2013 20:37
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