Exeter Chiefs
The season ends with a whimper
Sandy Park
By ExTeddChief
May 6 2014
ExTeddChief provides another personal look at Exeter Chiefs game v Quins
The season ends with a whimper
So, how do you respond after that dire display against Sale? Well the first order of business is...take a weekend off match action and let other sides play in European competition. The match I caught that weekend was Northampton vs Quins in the Amlin at Franklin’s Gardens. As I’ve said before, I was raised on Quins territory so was cheering for them and...they came up with the worst display I’ve seen from them for a long time.
Next stop for Quins...was Sandy Park. Well those matches tend to be pretty interesting at any rate and this around both sides had plenty to prove. From a Chiefs perspective, our season wasn’t done quite yet. If we beat Quins we still at the very least had a shot at 7th, though that depended on what Wasps came up with.
Thing is, our match was on a Sunday this time around and I didn’t actually get round to checking the Wasps score before heading to my grandparents place for a jacket potato and from there...off to Sandy Park. Get to seats...head back out to find programme...find out that Wasps got a WBP! Not good!
So this was it, win or bust, and beat Quins isn’t always straightforward even on home turf! Still, time to rumble.
It was Quins that had the first attack and there were plenty of their fans nearby me and my grandfather in SW Comms West who fancied their chances. Yet we held them off and then “CHARRRGE”...Quins conceded a pen...Steeno did the business, Chiefs led.
Chiefs weren’t done yet and soon got themselves an attacking lineout, which set up a maul and a breakaway runner off that, Lewis to be precise...got us a try...or did he? Well I cheered...and then realised that the music that was playing was from “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. Even now I’m not dead cert what the ref’s issue was but he did eventually give the try and Steeno converted.
Quins weren’t done though and they were soon down our end...in our corner and our defence was unable to through Ugo Monye out of play...well he is Ugo Monye but still...at least they couldn’t get a conversion.
Overall though, the Chiefs were able to ride out the storm, and as always from Quins it was a storm. Steeno slotted two more pens though. At half time...well that scoreline did me nicely even though grandfather thought it flattered us a bit!
Half time meant grabbing a pasty and having a minor laugh at the half time ridiculousness...we looked like we were going to be sorted.
We certainly were sorted after an opening charge that saw Steeno set up Jess who ran into plenty of space for our second try. Steeno converted.
Now the Quins fans were starting to write their team off and me, I was hoping we could yet pull off a WBP to match Wasps. Well it turned out to be too much to ask.
It wasn’t long before the Quins fans had reason to cheer, Nick Evans surging through for a try which he converted. Welch then got himself binned. Actually we managed to get away with that sin bin period points wise with Evans and Steeno simply exchanging pens. When the dust settled from that it was 26-18 Chiefs.
Quins were later up the other end though and the Chiefs defence was unable to stop Danny Care, with Evans converting. 26-25 and suddenly I’m flashing back to the Northampton Premiership game and thinking “please tell me we’re not going to let another side get a late win on our turf”.
Well Steeno got a pen to put us 29-25 up but that didn’t make us try-proof and again we had to hold out. Quins certainly charged though and with seconds on the clock the Quins fans went nuts! Tom Guest had gotten himself a try. I took one look at grandfather and one at my feet.
Game over. And season effectively over. It was one hell of a rumble and it was an improvement on the Sale game! And LBP was never going to be good enough though. Results elsewhere mean that the Chiefs are down to 9th.
The Challenge Cup it will be next season, well the last three seasons have seen us claim an Amlin Cup quarter final and respectable performances in the Heineken Cup. If nothing else, we should get a good seeding in the secondary European competition.
And it would be nice to get 8th on top of that...let’s see what happens in Newcastle.
Overall though...well how do you sum up the Chiefs season? Well we picked up the LV=Cup of course but are we now hitting a brick wall overall? Well we’ve still got another season of Premiership rugby to look forward to, now let’s see if we can reload and get back into the top half of the table next season.
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06/05/2014 19:47
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