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The Brickfields

Exeter finished their cup campaign with a convincing derby win over their local rivals. The Chiefs put out much of their strongest side as they looked to build some momentum before the first play-off game in a fortnight’s time. Although it was anticipated that Plymouth would follow suit, ahead of their play-off decider next week, they chose to rest a number of their first choice players. Exeter were forced into a late change as Matt Jess fell ill on the morning of the game and Phil Dollman came in at centre with Nic Sestaret moving to the wing.

A spring morning in Exeter had turned into a grey day in Plymouth and Exeter kicked off with a cold blustery wind at their backs. The Chiefs were out the blocks quickly and were awarded three penalties within the first four minutes; only one of which was within kicking range which Gareth Steenson narrowly failed to convert. After just five minutes, Exeter had crossed over the Plymouth line but Neil Clark was not quite able to ground the ball.

Exeter’s bright start faded as the half wore on; they dominated possession and were virtually camped in their opponent’s half but they became frustrated as they could not engineer a way through a resolute and organised home defence. Ultimately, the pressure told. A long clearance by Steenson on 25 minutes was poorly sliced into touch on his own 22-metre line by full-back Sione Tu’ipulotu. From the lineout, Exeter moved the ball swiftly along the line, before Bryan Rennie burst across the gain line and made a neat off-load to the supporting Sestaret who went over from close in for a try against his old club. Steenson knocked over the conversion.

Exeter went further ahead 10 minutes later. Clark was again held up as Exeter drove over the line but, from the resulting five-metre scrum, the back row drove hard at Albion and Chad Slade was bundled over the line to score another converted try.

After the break, Plymouth finally got some ball and looked to get back into the game. A slightly ambitious penalty attempt by Alex Davies on 44 minutes failed to get them on the scoreboard but a try two minutes later did the trick. Plymouth had been pressing the Chiefs line but were turned over. As Haydn Thomas tried to run clear from the breakdown, he was tackled high and the referee indicated a penalty for which he deemed the advantage to have been made from a skewed clearance from Rennie that barely made his 22-metre line. Expecting the play to be called back for the penalty, Chiefs were caught napping as Albion took a quick throw and shot off down the line for winger Geoff Griffiths to score in the corner. Davies failed with the conversion attempt.

The Chiefs extended their lead on 53 minutes. The rolling maul had been effective several times and, from a lineout on the Plymouth 22-metre line, the Chiefs set up another which powered its way forward before, sensing a lack of cover on the wing, Thomas ripped the ball from Clark and dived over unopposed for the score. Steenson just missed with the conversion attempt from wide out.

The game was nicely set up for Exeter now and the Chiefs supporters would have been relishing the prospect of more tries but the rest of the half delivered few thrills and little of note other than James Scaysbrook’s yellow card awarded for apparently collapsing a maul. This followed a slightly worrying incident when Rennie took a blow to the head. Plymouth suffered a nasty setback of their own when Mark Lee was stretchered off after a long delay with a leg injury.

With few fond memories of the half, it was a relief that Exeter finished off the game in style as, in the 13th minute of injury time, they put together a lengthy attack, with Sestaret and Tom Johnson to the fore leading to Thomas slipping over for his second try of the afternoon that was converted by Steenson as the final whistle blew.

Teams:

Plymouth Albion – Tu’ipulotu (Kingdom 65mins); Griffiths, Hopper, Johns (Fisilau 75mins), Gibson; Davies (Lee 52mins) (Johns 80mins), Lewsey; Porter, Owen (Clark 58mins), Morton (Hopkins 58mins), Collier, Hutson (Skelding 52mins), Stephen (capt) (Waterhouse 75mins), Sprangle, Evans

Exeter Chiefs – Jones; Sestaret, Dollman (Gray 80mins), Rennie (Cornwell 61mins), Foster; Steenson, Thomas; Sturgess (Budgen 66mins), Clark (Alcott 73mins), Tui, Hayes (capt), Hanks, Slade (Johnson 58mins, Miller 72-75mins), Scaysbrook (Miller 75mins), Baxter

Rep not used:

Stuart-Smith

Referee:

Paul Knowles

Scorers:

Plymouth Albion – Try: Griffiths

Exeter Chiefs – Tries: Sestaret, Slade, Thomas (2); Cons: Steenson (3)

Yellow card:

Scaysbrook (65mins)

Attendance:

2,766

By Chris Doe