Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Reuters
No trophies are dished out on the regular season’s final day but Exeter’s hunger for victory remains insatiable. Whether the Chiefs ultimately win the title or not, they will keep on entertaining people right to the end and no team in the country currently has greater statistical momentum. They will now entertain Saracens in a semi-final at Sandy Park chasing a totally different outcome from last year’s Twickenham final.
Given Saracens have to squeeze in a European Champions’ Cup final next weekend, it would be wise not to count the Chiefs out prematurely. Rob Baxter’s side have been mastering the champions’ trick of winning when not entirely at their best or depleted by injuries and have not lost to anyone in the league since October.
While Baxter acknowledges the scale of the next challenge – “Everyone knows how good Saracens are; we could potentially be playing the best team in Europe” – his squad long ago ceased to be overawed by anyone.
Baxter also felt it made no difference that the kick-off at the Ricoh Arena was delayed, giving Wasps the advantage of knowing precisely what they needed to do to top the table.
In the final analysis this was still another joyous trip into Devonian dreamland: a maximum bonus point win for a record eighth match in succession which secured a home semi-final even in the absence of Dave Ewers, Henry Slade and Thomas Waldrom. These hard-working, relentless Chiefs are anything but a bunch of fly-by-night chancers.
The crucial 69th-minute try scored by the replacement scrum-half Will Chudley, for instance, was the 86th try Exeter have scored in this most prolific of seasons. A dominant Saracens finished top of the table with 80 points last year, six points clear of the field, and scored 60 tries and 580 points. Exeter have exceeded every single one of those marks this time, some achievement given their sluggish start to the campaign.
If they rode their luck on occasions during a madcap game of oval-shaped pinball, there can be no disputing the ceaseless endeavour and collective pride that extracts them from trouble on a weekly basis. Gloucester defended hard and ran harder on occasions; the Chiefs, 15-6 down in the first half, soaked it all up and repeatedly hit their hosts on the counter, growing ever stronger and more confident the longer the game went on.
Gloucester’s season, from start to finish, has been a litany of what-ifs: the team that beat France’s top team, La Rochelle, away from home to reach next Friday’s European Challenge Cup final and looked irresistible for the opening hour of their first league game against Leicester in September have not displayed their true colours often enough.
They started like greyhounds again here, contributing fully to a blistering first quarter and stretching the Chiefs defence enough out wide to create a final early try for the flanker Lewis Ludlam.
When the lurking Jonny May picked off Gareth Steenson’s pass and cruised 65 metres to score at the other end, the Chiefs had no option but to dig deep again. This was the sixth game in a row in which Exeter have conceded an interception try, the price to be paid for their constant gainline positivity, yet they have still won on each occasion.
It did help that the Cherry and White defence, impressive for lengthy periods, slackened momentarily to allow Ian Whitten to carve straight through some softish defence to score under the posts and reduce the interval deficit to 15-13. If anything the game’s pace then cranked up another notch, with both sides determined to end the regular campaign in style.
Had there not been a knock-on in the build-up, May would have been a contender for finish of the season as he soared up and over his England team-mate Jack Nowell, only for the Chiefs to work their way back upfield for the replacement Sam Simmonds to put the prop Ben Moon over by the left corner flag. James Short and Chudley duly secured the bonus point, cancelling out May’s second score at the other end. The last quarter, as so often in recent months, was a case of the Chiefs once again showing their opponents who is boss.
