If anyone doubted Exeter Chiefs were serious title contenders, this is a result, and more to the point performance, which should go a long way towards convincing them otherwise. Dominant in the first half, when they scored three tries from driving mauls, the Chiefs found themselves pegged back by Wasps before the hour, only for Thomas Waldrom’s third try, again resulting from a driving maul, and Moray Low’s late score, to make the game safe.
“Well, we’re going to get to Christmas in at least second place,” said the Exeter director of rugby, Rob Baxter, after his side went top pending Saracens’ match at Newcastle on Sunday.
“We’ve just got to make sure we keep tapping into that emotional well and keep producing big performances. How many times can we keep sending the boys on to the field in the right physical and mental state, and bearing in mind we had to make changes today, particularly in the pack, I think it shows we have the ability to chop and change a little bit.
“We pretty much had to win the game twice after they wrestled the momentum back and I was really pleased with that element of our game. Our forwards stood up, they created some opportunities and kept ramming them home.”
The major downside for the visitors was what looked to be a serious leg injury incurred by Henry Slade, who had to be carried off on a stretcher with 15 minutes remaining. Baxter said the initial diagnosis was that the young centre prospect had broken his leg.
If confirmed, it is a major blow for Slade, who can surely have expected to be part of the new-look England. Talking of which, Baxter said reports he had been approached to become part of Eddie Jones’ coaching set-up were wide of the mark.
“Everybody’s kidding themselves if they think he’s going to start trying to drag a coaching team together of people he’s never met,” said Baxter.
Wasps came into the game with four wins from their last four in all competitions, including hugely encouraging European victories over Leinster and Toulon. But the Chiefs had lost only once in the Premiership all season and after a superb penalty touch-finder from Gareth Steenson gave them a lineout a couple of yards from the Wasps line, the visitors’ forwards unfussily drove Waldrom over the line.
Exeter’s back division quickly showed itself to be as dangerous as their pack. Again it was disconcertingly straightforward in execution, an overlap manufactured down the right by Slade enabling Jack Nowell to scamper over the line.
Exeter’s forwards were on a roll. Another catch and drive put lock Mitch Lees over, and five minutes later, yet another drive from 10 yards out gave Waldrom his second try.
Wasps needed to respond before the break, and they did: from a low kick-through, Frank Halai gave the home team a modicum of hope. It became more than a modicum when barely three minutes after the restart Ashley Johnson’s angled and perfectly timed short-range charge took him through Hill’s attempted tackle on the line.
The change in momentum was remarkable, and on 53 minutes Wasps were level: Guy Thompson’s long run from midfield was stopped short, but prop Lorenzo Cittadini picked up and burrowed his way across the line.
Having been pegged back, however, Exeter did not let their heads drop. Instead, they went back to what had worked so well in the first half: a catch, a drive and once again, it was Waldrom who was last up before Low confirmed the win.
