You grin when you win, and you learn when you lose. One thing we discovered last Friday is that if you rattle the Chiefs then it doesn’t matter how many braves you have in your team, sometimes you just have to take a beating on the chin. But history also tells us that if a single battle is lost then the war can still be won. The Bears were certainly taught a lesson but potentially their learnings may well have been more beneficial than those of their opponents. From the short-term bitterness of the loss that fans will have felt after having supped heartily from the goblet of an eight-game unbeaten run, there may well come a sweet long term gain if Bristol manage to use this experience to quench the deep thirst for a Premiership title come June 26th at Twickenham.
Despite Bristol’s electric start and their laudable huff and puff right up to the death, Exeter Chiefs reclaimed the west country’s rugby honours with a certain degree of ease. It was big boy pants stuff from the visitors and sadly Bristol had their budgie smugglers revealed, if not pulled down by a team that were well drilled, fully prepared and had not only done their homework, but had clearly handed it in early, got it marked and achieved A*s all-round, with Jacques Vermeulen, Sam Simmonds, and Jack Nowell all graduating to the top of the class. Vermeulen edged the other two as teacher’s pet on account of getting BT Sport man of the match but Simmonds may well get the greater reward of a Lions berth on the back of his performance. Surely only a rugby coach dripping in hubris can fail to see what a fully tooled up filthy rig the boy is.
But really, why wouldn’t have Exeter been so effective? The current English and European champions will not have enjoyed watching the nation’s rugby epicentre slowly creeping up the M5 and with the warning bells ringing as it reached Sedgemoor services, they knew that a statement had to be made before it hit Gordano. No doubt taking his inspiration from Superintendent Ted Hastings and his merciless pursuit of bent coppers, Rob Baxter went about arresting the perceived corruption of their recent dominance with a clear operational plan. Like when a new kid joins the class and becomes everyone else’s bestie he realised that his charges had no choice but to stand up and reclaim their dignity or they would be doomed to spend the rest of the season cowering in the corner wondering why no one liked their briefcase anymore.
But let’s not take anything away from the Bears. More credit needs to be given to their efforts than they received from some quarters. After a blistering start, when Charles Piutau rolled out of Bristol’s 22 with the ferocity of a typhoon making landfall and Andy Uren appeared to rearrange Newton’s three laws of motion to somehow skip over the whitewash from 20 yards out, you wondered whether this would be the beginning of the end for the Chiefs. However, they quickly grew into their game plan, thanks to a desire to maintain their lofty position in the rugby hierarchy as well as from some rather laissez faire refereeing from Wayne Barnes. You had to admire them though, and the way that they counter rucked in particular, and dominated the breakdown more generally, albeit on either sides off the law, enabled them to gain a first half advantage that they just about managed to maintain to the end despite actually losing the second.
As the old adage goes, possession is nine tenths of the law, and in this respect the Chiefs were able to reinforce their dominance and get the result they wanted and only a Bristol fan fully immersed in a hot tub of Thatchers Gold would say that they didn’t deserve the win. As is the way with these sorts of close combat ties, it is the management of the ebbs and flows that is the key to winning and ultimately the collective cut of Exeter’s jib meant that they were able to plot a course through the choppy waters that the Bears whipped up. Over the entirety of the game they out-gunned, out-thought and out-boxed their opponents, but it wasn’t by much. The game was gladiatorial in its intensity and brutality and was as compelling to watch as anything that has been seen so far this season. Tiny margins were amplified and small mistakes punished.
No doubt to the delight of the watching neutral fans, the big players in both teams stepped up and were counted. For the Chiefs, Jack Nowell prowled the park like a ravenous predator hunting the weak, and in Niyi Adeolokun, unfortunately found the antelope that his big cat appetite craved. The pace and physicality of Simmonds was extraordinary and as for Jacques Vermeulen, the Chiefs had less a work horse and more a mighty Pegasus winging his way into contact as if his life depended on it. There were others equally impressive. Devoto and O’Flaherty maintained their current form and in the pack, the front five to a man were fearsome in the tackle and forceful in the carry.
That said, many of the Bears also impressed but most didn’t quite manage to get a higher rating than their opposite numbers. Perhaps Piers O’Conor was one and Andy Uren another but Charles Piutau did at least win the battle of the two full backs and when you are talking about someone as box office as Stuart Hogg then this is a pretty big achievement. Hogg is pure class but even he would struggle too execute a delayed triple dummy pass like King Charles did to set up Luke Morahan’s late try. It was pure Harlem Globetrotter and managed to get the usually phlegmatic David Flatman on BT Comms to mew like a kitten as the play unfolded.
The other standout feature of the game was a reminder of just how far the collective skill sets of forwards have become in recent times. Yes, there have been one or two in the past who have lit the blue touch paper – John Eales scoring outrageous drop goals for the Wallabies is one that comes to mind – but that was always the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time the lumps of the past would barely have been able to pick the ball up, let alone pass it, preserving most of their energy for haymakers and head buts, and as for their legs, the majority of their brain power was used to ensure that one foot went in front of the other in some sort of order that allowed them to stay upright. But when Johnny Hill cleared his 22 with a 60 yard spiral like Wurzel Gummidge on steroids and John Afoa attempted his standard no-look inside pop pass, it reinforced the fact that thankfully those days are over. Modern rugby is a 23 man affair and long may it continue.
So, the Chiefs came and got what they wanted but the Bears will lick their wounds and know that when they are back to full strength and come up with a strategy to counter the game plan that Exeter will surely use against them in future contests, there is a lot to be optimistic about. Exeter needed the win to keep ahead of the chasing pack but Bristol are still seven points clear.
The upshot is that the season is steaming towards a climax where, if justice is to be done, these two sides will be meeting again in south west London for a shown down that will make the Gunfight at the OK Coral look like a playground scuffle. Wyatt Earp or the Cowboys? Time will tell.
If you want to hear more about this game then click here for the episode 70 of Bears Beyond The Gate, a podcast made by fans for fans.
Filthy Rig 