European rugby is meant to be the pinnacle of the club game in the northern hemisphere but qualifying for the last eight is not everyone’s priority. Bordeaux’s director of rugby, Raphael Ibanez, skipped this fixture to fulfil his duties for French television in Toulon and his side could not have been blamed had they simply dialled in a performance on a chilly, foggy Sunday night in Devon.
Instead they dug in sufficiently to terminate Exeter’s interest in the Champions Cup for this season barring a miraculous sequence of results. The contest only rarely approached great heights in terms of sparkling pre-Christmas entertainment and also proved a largely unrewarding evening, among others, for Jack Nowell and Henry Slade, both desperate to impress the watching England head coach, Eddie Jones. Jones, it can be confidently predicted, will not have gone home marvelling at the overall skill level of this contest.
Conditions, it has to be said, were not remotely helpful. The ball was greasy and visibility at times resembled something out of the Hound of the Baskervilles, with Ibanez far from alone in missing some of the action. By the time Nigel Owens blew for half-time the bright electronic scoreboard was offering the only effective clues as to what was going on, although happily there was a significant improvement after half-time.
A frustrated Exeter would probably have preferred the second half to have been completely shrouded from view. They competed physically and created a fistful of chances but scored only one first-half try, an underperforming scrum allowing Bordeaux a foothold in a game that had initially seemed to be drifting out of reach. It might all have been different had James Short been adjudged to have scored deep into the final quarter after a glorious run to the left corner but the television match official ruled he had grounded the ball fractionally short and propelled it forwards rather than touching it down.
They would have hoped for something more after three successive Premiership wins have reinvigorated their domestic season. The coaching staff have been encouraging greater intensity on both sides of the ball and a slightly simplified tactical approach but this was a game they should have won despite the wintry mist shrouding the Exe valley. At least Nowell survived his first start of the season intact, making a fine early try-saving tackle on Blair Connor to keep Exeter’s line intact.There was no score for either side in the first half-hour although the full-back Lachie Turner, looking sharper than he did on arrival at the Chiefs last season, did go close on a couple of occasions.
There was also some purposeful running from another relatively recent arrival Ollie Devoto and it was the centre who finally unlocked the Bordeaux defence wide on the left, his line-break and inside ball allowing the young Chiefs scrum-half, Jack Maunder, to score his first European try. The 19-year-old, whose father Andy captained Exeter with distinction for many years, was once a budding wicketkeeper in Nottinghamshire’s academy and was never going to spill such a gilt-edged chance. The No9’s duel with Bordeaux’s Baptiste Serin was a particularly interesting one, given the 22-year-old Serin has already represented France, creating a lovely try against the All Blacks last month. He has been taken under the wing of the former international Dimitri Yachvili and looks to have a lengthy representative career ahead of him.
Sure enough it was Serin who dragged his team back into the game, capitalising on a scrum against the head 10 metres from Exeter’s line to twist over. Bordeaux, ironically, were responsible for propelling Exeter into last season’s last eight courtesy of a bizarre last-day win at Clermont Auvergne but on this occasion there was to be a very different twist to the tale, with a further penalty from the replacement fly-half Lionel Beauxis giving the French team an all-important advantage.
How Exeter were made to regret the chances that got away, with Gareth Steenson having the ball dislodged as he lunged for the line before Short’s near miss. The Bordeaux No8, Marco Tauleigne, deserved plenty of credit for his cover tackle but it was another of those occasions when the replays available to the TMO were not entirely conclusive. As Baxter rightly observed: “We didn’t take our chances and Bordeaux converted theirs.”
It is not all bad news in the west with Exeter currently among the healthier clubs in England financially, with turnover up almost 17 per cent year on year. This, though, was not a bumper night for the treasurer, with plenty of empty seats compared with their afternoon attendances. Television, as Ibanez can testify, calls the tune these days but the preferences of the paying punter should never be blithely ignored.
Exeter Turner; Nowell, Devoto (Campagnaro, 75), Slade, (Hill, 61), Short; Steenson (capt), Maunder (Chudley, 54); Moon (Rimmer, 54), Yeandle (Malton, 75), Francis (Holmes, 54), Parling (Atkins, 43), Hill, Ewers, Armand, Dennis (Horstmann, 61).
Try Maunder Con Steenson.
Bordeaux-Bègles Buttin; Ducuing (Vakacegu, 65), Lonca, Rey, Connor; Madigan (Beauxis, 60), Serin (capt; Lesgourges, 57); Kitshoff (Taofifenua, 50), Avei (Maynadier, 50), Clerc (Poux, 50) Palmer (Jones, h-t), Botha, Goujon, Edwards (Chalmers, 50), Tauleigne.
Try Serin Con Madigan. Pens Madigan, Beauxis.
Referee Nigel Owens (RFU).
