Bristol win effectively ends Exeter's hopes of reaching Premiership play-offs
Exeter’s hopes of reaching the Gallagher Premiership play-offs for a seventh-successive season were effectively ended after Bristol beat them 40-33 at Ashton Gate.
Two losing points means that Exeter still have the tiniest mathematical chance of progressing, but they are four points behind fourth-placed Northampton with just one game left.
Saints or Gloucester can end Exeter’s chances in their games on Saturday, leaving the Chiefs – six times Premiership finalists – facing an early finish to their season for the first time since 2015.
They fought their way back from 14 points adrift in an 11-try thriller, but wing Toby Fricker’s interception try and a later Luke Morahan score saw Bristol home.
Fricker and Morahan apart, full-back Charles Piutau crossed twice for Bristol, with fly-half Callum Sheedy and centre Alapati Leiua also touching down, while Sheedy kicked four conversions and Ioan Lloyd one.
Exeter went blow for blow through touchdowns for Santiago Grondona, Josh Hodge, James Kenny, Olly Woodburn and Dave Ewers – Joe Simmonds booted four conversions – but Bristol prevailed through a powerful finish.
Piutau and Morahan returned for Bristol’s final home game of the season, with Leiua, John Afoa and Dave Attwood making their last Ashton Gate appearances before moving to new clubs next term.
Exeter boss Rob Baxter made four changes to the team beaten by Saracens last time out, including starts for Hodge, Ewers and prop Harry Williams.
The Chiefs dominated early territory, and that looked to have reaped its reward after 11 minutes when Stuart Hogg touched down wide out, but the try was disallowed following a knock-on in build-up play.
Bristol spent almost the entire opening quarter defending, but a combination of aggressive tackling and Exeter errors meant that it remained scoreless.
The home side then struck from their first attack after Exeter skipper Jack Yeandle infringed, with Bristol’s England scrum-half Harry Randall taking a quick penalty and freeing Sheedy on a clear run to the line.
Sheedy added the conversion in an impressive response to being left out of the Wales squad earlier this week for a three-Test South Africa tour in July.
It was a score completely against the run of play, but Exeter responded within four minutes after sustained close-range pressure resulted in Grondona crashing over and Simmonds converting.
Back came Bristol, though, and they regained the lead seven minutes before half-time when Piutau weaved his way over to reward impressive work by a fired-up home pack.
Sheedy’s conversion restored a seven-point lead for Bristol, yet whereas defences had dominated the early action, space was now being created, and slick passing saw Exeter draw level again just before half-time as Hodge finished off a smart move and Simmonds converted.
Hodge departed injured early in the second period, before the visitors produced another smart attacking move that saw centre Ian Whitten breach Bristol’s defence, only for it to be ruled out after an earlier late tackle.
And Bristol made the most of it as Piutau breezed across for his second try after 47 minutes, with Sheedy’s conversion again leaving Exeter seven points adrift.
Sheedy carved open Exeter’s defence just five minutes later, before delivering a superb pass to Leiua, who applied a stunning finish, and Sheedy’s conversion left Chiefs floundering.
But Bristol then had substitute Jack Bates sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Exeter number eight Jacques Vermeulen, and they immediately claimed a third try through Kenny that Simmonds converted.
The home side could not cope with 14 players and Exeter struck again on the hour mark through Woodburn, before Simmonds added the extras to make it 28-28.
Exeter, though, followed good with bad when England centre Henry Slade’s pass was intercepted by Fricker just inside his own half and he sprinted clear to score – with Lloyd converting – before Morahan sealed a memorable win six minutes from time.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments