Last September few thought Exeter would finish fifth in the Premiership and only miss out on the play-offs on the final afternoon. The sense of disappointment in Devon at the final whistle, therefore, was a sign of exactly how far they have progressed this season. Sooner rather than later they will make it into the top four and stay there for a while.
This time, though, the complicated last-day equation did not quite add up in their favour. Despite scoring seven tries, including two for their wonderfully energetic winger Matt Jess, they were always going to struggle to outdo Saracens’ tally at London Welsh and so it proved. Leicester’s victory over a weakened Northampton side was not the most staggering of results either.
Rob Baxter, the Chiefs’ head coach, is not one of life’s whingers, however, and was not about to start pointing fingers at the Saints. “Bath and Northampton earned the right to do what they had to do,” he said, recalling how Exeter rotated their own squad during their promotion season five years ago. “I haven’t any regrets about this season … hopefully we’ll be even better next year.”
Exeter have produced far better rugby than they did in the first half but their increasing fluency after half-time at least meant they finished off the Sharks with a flourish. Baxter’s biggest worry before kick-off was that his team would be distracted from the immediate task and the Chiefs duly started strongly, Ian Whitten scoring in the right corner after a series of frustrated forward drives.
Sale’s ability to slow the game down and make a nuisance of themselves at the set-pieces subsequently made life less straightforward and the Sharks even sneaked ahead through two penalties from Danny Cipriani and a galloping 35-metre score from the athletic Beaumont. The No8 was shown the outside by England’s Jack Nowell and took it with evident relish, momentarily hushing the home crowd.
It turned out to be the jolt the local favourites needed, a lovely miss pass from Slade putting the lurking Nowell over on the left. Gareth Steenson’s conversion gave the Chiefs a 15-11 interval lead, not quite the return they were hoping for but entirely deserved. Sale, still mathematically in with a chance of European qualification entering the final round, take some knocking over and looked keen to rubbish the concern of the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, about them potentially having one eye on the beach.
Regardless of events elsewhere the Chiefs urgently needed to rediscover the tempo and energy which had helped them past Saracens a week earlier. As so often it was their skipper Dean Mumm on his farewell appearance who led the way, rampaging upfield in concert with his big second-row partner Mitch Lees to establish the position from which Ben White crashed over for his side’s third try.
Momentarily the numbers were looking more encouraging and the buoyant mood among the record 12,642 reflected it. It was not well received locally, then, when Sale went straight back up the other end and the lively Beaumont accelerated away for his second score to reduce the deficit to a skinny six points. This year’s World Cup will come too soon for the ex-England captain’s son but he could be a potential Test candidate at some stage.
The final 25 minutes, in contrast, were one-way traffic following Johnny Leota being sent to the sin bin for a high challenge on Will Chudley. The indefatigable Jess touched down twice in three minutes and, with the Sharks still down to 14 men, Henry Slade wriggled over on his hands and knees to score his side’s sixth try. After Ross Harrison had been red-carded for punching Alex Brown, Byron McGuigan added a seventh but by then the play-off game was already up.
The afternoon also ended prematurely for Mark Cueto, who was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on and thus ended his distinguished career in the sin-bin. Cueto has been a one-club man while his fellow retiree Nathan Hines has had about 57 varieties of jersey, but the popular duo will be remembered fondly as players who gave it everything regardless of the scoreboard. If rugby can keep producing such solid citizens the sport’s future is assured.
