The year 2017 has been a truly memorable one for Exeter and this was a last seasonal cherry on the top. The Chiefs are entering the new year with a 10-point lead at the top of the table and some of the country’s traditional big beasts are finding it increasingly hard to keep up. Leicester had seven England internationals in their 23 and still finished a distant second.
To make the New Year’s Eve drive home even less enjoyable, this was Leicester’s sixth successive defeat in all competitions, their worst sequence since 1965. The intervening 52 years have contained plenty of good times but with Northampton also toiling – the duo sit in ninth and 10th place respectively – the balance of power is tilting away from the game’s traditional strongholds.
Over the past 12 months Exeter have collected 19 points more than anyone else and their director of rugby, Rob Baxter, correctly described it as “one of those years you don’t want to end”. There is certainly no sign of the Chiefs’ ambitions slackening.
This was not their finest performance of the year but, having turned to face a stiff breeze leading by only 6-3, they still finished with four tries and a last-gasp bonus point.
No wonder Baxter was content for his players to have a few drinks and “decompress a little bit” before Sunday’s trip to Newcastle.
“The thing with sport is it doesn’t matter how good the past has been, you’ve got to look to the future,” he said. “The important thing for us is not to get too focused on what 2018 will bring but what training on Tuesday will bring.
“We’ll all have a headache tomorrow and then we’ll get on and make sure Tuesday is a good training day because that ultimately is what will makes us successful for Newcastle. That’s all we can do: hope the rest of the season goes as well as this because of what we do day by day.”
That used to be Leicester’s battle cry but these clubs have undergone a conspicuous role reversal. Once upon a time it was the Tigers who pummelled sides before cutting loose in the final quarter; now it is Exeter’s calling card. Their fourth and final try, from a driven lineout finished by Jack Yeandle, may not have materialised until the final seconds but Leicester had run out of answers some time earlier, with tries from Don Armand, Henry Slade and Jonny Hill already determining the outcome.
It also gave the watching Eddie Jones further food for thought, with only the early departure of the hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie spoiling Exeter’s afternoon. This was a big day for the Cornishman, omitted from England’s 34-man training squad gathering in Brighton this week, who has been playing significantly more impressively of late than his supposed betters, but he lasted only eight minutes before exiting with a hip injury.
If he can make a swift recovery, 2018 may still offer rich opportunities. Judging by Dylan Hartley’s sub-par display for Northampton against Harlequins on Saturday –and the pained expression on Jones’s face in the Twickenham stands – the issue of England’s best available starting front-row combination is not going to go away and Cowan-Dickie deserves serious consideration at the very least.
Jones will also doubtless continue to monitor the form of Manu Tuilagi, whose comeback from injury continues to be steady rather than spectacular. Comfortably the more threatening 13 on display was Slade, who also possesses a far more varied palette of kicking and handling skills.
Maybe England will one day pair Slade and Tuilagi together and see all their midfield dreams come true; for now Jones will settle for Tuilagi shedding the heavy strapping on his left leg and rebuilding his confidence at club level.
On this occasion the big man was also comprehensively outshone by Jack Nowell, relentlessly busy despite tricky, slippery conditions. A pre-match downpour and a blustery wind combined to make handling awkward and Exeter dropped more ball in the first quarter alone than they would normally in a month.
In the nick of time, they located a powerful second wind. A surge up the middle by Slade put his pack on the front foot and the pressure eventually told when Armand was driven over by his fellow back-rower Dave Ewers. A mistake by Jonny May, drafted in late at full-back, helped Slade to collect a bouncing ball and sprint clear and Exeter would have won by a wider margin had Nic White not had a long-range try ruled out for a knock-on way back upfield.
Should Leicester lose at Welford Road to London Irish on Saturday, a full-blown Midlands crisis can formally be declared.
Exeter: Turner; Woodburn, Slade, S Hill, Nowell (Short, 75); Steenson (capt; Whitten, 69), Chudley (White, 54); Hepburn (Rimmer, 65), Cowan-Dickie (Yeandle, 8), Williams (Francis, 59), Skinner, J Hill, Ewers (Lees, 54), Armand, Waldrom (S Simmonds, 54).
Tries: Armand, Slade, J Hill, Yeandle. Cons: Steenson 2. Pens: Slade, Steenson.
Leicester: May; Malouf, Tuilagi (J Ford, 75), Toomua, Thompstone (Tait, 72) ; G Ford (capt), B Youngs (Harrison, 69); Mulipola (Traynor, 72), Polota-Nau (T Youngs, 54), Cole (Baumann, 75), Fitzgerald (Wells, 61), Kitchener, Williams (Mapapalangi, 61), Hamilton, Kalamafoni.
Pens: G Ford 2.
Referee: C Maxwell-Keys (RFU). Att: 12,807.
