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Exeter edge spectacular eight-try Champions Cup final thriller against Racing
Exeter have won the Champions Cup after beating Racing 92 31-27 in the final at Ashton Gate. Chiefs rugby director Rob Baxter made one change following the semi-final victory over Toulouse, with flanker Jacques Vermeulen replacing Sam Skinner, while Exeter’s England wing Jack Nowell recovered from a foot injury to start.
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Racing, beaten in their two previous Champions Cup final appearances, handed starts to wing Louis Dupichot, centre Henry Chavancy and lock Bernard Le Roux as switches after their semi-final win against Saracens three weeks ago.
Exeter took just eight minutes to make a mark, with hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie scoring the final’s opening try following a driven lineout. Chiefs skipper Joe Simmonds converted and he also added the extras to his brother Sam’s touch down nine minutes later as the Chiefs cruised into a 14-point lead.
Exeter’s forwards ruled the roost, but Racing hit back impressively through tries from full-back Simon Zebo and wing Juan Imhoff during a dominant eleven-minute spell, with Russell, who had earlier almost gifted Exeter a try when he dropped the ball behind his own line, adding one conversion.
Racing had stirred following Exeter’s opening-quarter masterclass, but Exeter pounced for another close-range try on the stroke of half-time as prop Harry Williams touched down and Joe Simmonds converted for a 21-12 interval lead.
"The fairytale is complete! From Devon minnows to European giants!"
They've done it! @ExeterChiefs have done it! ?
Incredible scenes, what an amazing story!#ChampionsCupFinal pic.twitter.com/hrxUBYDU4T
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 17, 2020
There was no let-up in the flow of tries, with Zebo touching down for his second after 43 minutes. Nowell then intercepted an ambitious Russell pass 20 metres from the Racing line and sent centre Henry Slade over.
Joe Simmonds’ fourth successful conversion opened up a 28-17 advantage, yet Racing responded again as hooker Camille Chat crossed for his team’s fourth try and replacement scrum-half Maxime Machenaud converted.
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The final had produced eight tries with more than a quarter of the match remaining, yet Exeter’s lead was just four points. A Machenaud penalty cut the gap to a point, setting up a thrilling finale that saw Exeter’s replacement prop Tomas Francis sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.
It meant that Exeter finished the game with 14 men, and they had to survive a prolonged spell of Racing pressure as the clock ticked down.
It was a breathless, spellbinding contest but Exeter somehow held on, with Simmonds kicking an 80th-minute penalty as the Chiefs claimed their first European title with an unforgettable 31-27 victory.
Exeter skipper Joe Simmonds told BT Sport: “It hasn’t sunk in. It has been a whole squad effort, and we have been hurting for the last few years losing finals. When that final whistle went, the emotion from everyone, I was welling up a bit, and to have my brother beside me was massive.”
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Simmonds’ brother Sam added: “It’s absolutely massive. It doesn’t matter that there are no fans here, this group is incredible. It is amazing, and I can’t believe it. The fans will feel a lot of pride. To win this and have a chance at the double is huge, and everyone involved in the club is ecstatic.
“For now, we can enjoy this and won’t look towards the game at Twickenham until Monday. This is a huge achievement for the club, and I can’t wait to have a beer with the boys.”
"Alexa, play "BOOM!" by P.O.D."#ChampionsCupFinal pic.twitter.com/oPrGoW9sZ9
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 17, 2020
Chiefs got off to an Ashton Gate flyer in their first Euro final https://t.co/dfwBoCRrkb
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 17, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Je 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments