Exeter Chiefs completed a relatively comfortable victory over Worcester Warriors at Sandy Park on Saturday afternoon as they were able to secure maximum points in this Aviva Premiership encounter.
Worcester made the trip to Exeter in defiant mood despite finding themselves at the bottom of the Premiership table going into this weekend’s round of fixtures. Ignacio Mieres squaring up against his former club was just one of a number of interesting subplots that added spice to the occasion.
The two sides emerged from the tunnel to a crescendo of noise under the darkening West Country sky, the boisterous Exeter crowd expecting nothing less than a win following their disappointing loss to Glasgow in the Heineken Cup last weekend.
The home side started brightly and their decision to turn down three points was vindicated as Ben White powered over the whitewash after just four minutes, Gareth Steenson adding the extras to make it 7-0. The score felt almost inevitable as Exeter exhibited the same intense attacking precision that had blown a star-studded Cardiff side away in the first round of Europe’s showpiece event two weeks before.
The Warriors did get on the score sheet shortly after as ill discipline by the home side allowed Mieres to pull a penalty back. However, Exeter responded in the most emphatic fashion as fullback Phil Dollman jinked impressively through a few challenges before Dave Lewis and Steenson combined to set captain Mumm striding under the posts. With the formality of the conversion, the home side made it 14-3 and looked comfortable.
Worcester responded well and forced the Chiefs into a sustained rear guard action and Mieres was given the opportunity in front of the posts to make further in roads into the deficit. However, the Argentinean sliced his kick wide, much to the amusement of the Exeter fans that used to cheer his name.
He made no mistake later in the half as he knocked over a three-pointer that the visitors continued presence in the host’s half warranted. Murray began to show his set piece potency as Worcester’s scrum appeared to have taken the upper hand. But a lack of cutting edge meant that they went into the interval 14-6 down and will surely have felt their pressure warranted more.
The second half could not have been more one sided as Exeter moved seamlessly through the gears while the visitors defence systematically imploded. A dynamic break from winger Matt Jess at the start of the half gave the crowd a taste of what was to follow.
Fly Half Steenson was at the heart of Exeter’s offensive superiority – the Ulsterman has started to parade the same graceful accuracy of passing that evokes comparison to the most consummate distributors to play the game, like Carlos Spencer or Charlie Hodgson. But it was a mistake from Worcester scrum half Jonny Arr that killed the game as a contest.
In the 50th minute, his box-kick was charged down by the omnipotent Ben White who reacted first to grab his brace and, with Steenson’s impressive conversion, Exeter moved two scores clear. The ever impressive Tom Johnson was then put through a gap after some quick Chief’s hands and he calmly drew the covering defender to give Dollman a well earned 5-pointer and, more significantly, a try-scoring bonus point.
The home side were not finished there. More good hands allowed Damien Welch to fall over in other the corner to extend the lead to 33-6 with 10 minutes remaining. There was still time for replacement scrum half Haydn Thomas to latch onto Henry Slade’s inside pass after the replacement stand off had broken through Worcester’s increasingly porous defence.
He added the extras to round off an impressive display by the Devon club but the 40-6 score line does not tell the whole story. Warriors boss Dean Ryan will wonder how his side managed to fall off the pace so dramatically.
John Hodgson, Sports Team
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