In the short term, Thomas Waldrom’s reward for scoring three of the six tries that Exeter stuck on Wasps at a slightly stunned Ricoh Arena on Saturday evening was a bar of chocolate. The respect and attention that will be afforded the Chiefs for this performance, however, will last rather longer.
That the visitors’ pack, missing the prospective England back-row Dave Ewers and the flanker Don Armand, still proved capable of embarrassing their opponents – four of their tries were scored from rolling mauls – suggests Rob Baxter’s team could indeed possess the strength in depth to sustain a title challenge to the end of this compressed season.
Unfortunately for the men from the south-west, they will now need to prove they have it in the backs, as well as the forwards, after Henry Slade suffered a suspected broken leg late in the game. On Sunday morning Exeter issued a statement saying the player was due to undergo an operation later in the day, and while the exact diagnosis of the injury was still not confirmed, it is clearly unfortunate timing for the 22-year-old centre, who had an outstanding chance of being part of new England head coach Eddie Jones’ Six Nations plans.
Even so, Baxter was sanguine as he looked to the future, both for the player and the club. “Hopefully if it is a break it’s clean, and we can get Henry sorted pretty quickly. We’ll use this as an opportunity to get other bits and pieces of him rested and up to speed.
“Great credit goes to the lads who stepped in today. I thought the back row was fantastic, they replaced two really good performers for us, it shows we have a bit of fight there.
“It was nice to see Geoff Parling get a start, but then we saw Damian Welch come on and he ran the show for us lineout-wise. We have the ability to chop and change a little bit. We’re going to have to weather a Henry Slade injury now, so we still have a few challenges to face.”
The form of Ewers and Armand means Waldrom has not been an automatic starter this season but the former Leicester Tiger has no doubts he is in the right place. “The environment that’s being created is one of the best I’ve been involved in. Moving down is the best move I’ve ever made, it’s a very special place. We have Clermont now [in the Champions Cup], which will show where we are, but I think there’s a lot more we can achieve moving forward.”
Asked whether Baxter should be part of the England coaching setup (the man himself confirmed he had not been approached and suggested people were “kidding themselves” if they thought Jones would have a coaching team of people he had never met), Waldrom was noncommittal.
“It’s probably something he wants to do one day but it’s when he wants to take it. I think he’s enjoying it at Exeter and what we’re achieving. But he’s a top man. His people skills, the way he understands his role and interacts with us – it’s hard to put into words, but he knows what Exeter is and what he’s trying to build.”
For Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, the defeat was something of a wake-up call. “We were beaten by a very good team that looked, to be quite honest, to be better than us in most departments.
“I don’t think we’d had a driving lineout scored against us all season, but Exeter made it look easy. You have to give them credit, but we have to be better than we were today. When people start saying nice things about you, you have to make sure you don’t start to believe it.”
Wasps Piutau; Tagicakibau, Daly, Jacobs (Leiua, 63), Halai; Gopperth, Robson (Simpson, 52); Mullan (capt; McIntyre, 63), Johnson (Shervington, 63), Cittadini (Cooper-Woolley, 52), Davies, Gaskell (Myall, 63), Jones, Smith, Thompson (Hughes, 52). Tries Halai, Johnson, Cittadini. Cons Gopperth 3. Pens Gopperth 2.
Exeter Dollman; Nowell, Slade (Woodburn, 65), Hill (Whitten 58), Short; Steenson, Chudley; Moon (Rimmer, 52), Yeandle (capt; Taione, 65), Francis (Low, 62), Lees, Parling (Welch, 49), Johnson (White, 52), Salvi, Waldrom. Tries Waldrom 3, Nowell, Lees, Low. Cons Steenson 4. Pen Steenson.
Referee Greg Garner. Attendance 10,304.
