| Bristol:(14) 14 |
| Tries: Oghre, Heward Cons: Sheedy 2 |
| Exeter:(12) 24 |
| Tries: Iosefa-Scott, Feyi-Waboso, Townsend, Vermeulen Cons: Slade 2 |
Exeter moved prime of the Premiership with a uncommon bonus-point win on the street as they prevailed 24-14 at Bristol.
Tries from Josh Iosefa-Scott and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso twice had Chiefs forward however Gabriel Oghre and Noah Heward replied in a see-saw first half.
Stu Townsend put Exeter again in entrance on the resumption and Jacques Vermeulen wrapped up the bonus level late on.
Exeter’s seventh win of the marketing campaign lifts them above Tub on the summit forward of the weekend’s fixtures.
Rob Baxter made modifications to the Exeter facet that beat Leicester final weekend with try-scorers Iosefa-Scott, Feyi-Waboso and Townsend amongst these returning to the beginning 15 for less than the Chiefs’ second win on the street since October 2022.
The sport befell in entrance of a bumper crowd of greater than 24,257 inside Ashton Gate, the most important attendance for a Bears match for greater than three years, but it surely was the visiting followers who have been celebrating first throughout a primary 40 minutes that noticed the lead swap backwards and forwards.
Exeter off-loaded rapidly from a five-metre line-out, transferring the ball swiftly to arrange Iosefa-Scott to drive over from shut vary, Henry Slade including the extras.
Bristol immediately retaliated with their very own strive following a line-out, hooker Oghre powering via the Exeter defence and Callum Sheedy’s conversion levelling the scores.
A wonderful workforce strive noticed Exeter return in entrance after Ollie Woodburn made the essential line break, the ball unfold out broad for Feyi-Waboso to the touch down in the correct nook.
However Heward sprinted via a slender hole down the correct touchline earlier than acrobatically diving over within the nook, Sheedy changing to present Bristol a slender two-point half-time lead.
The Bears have been left to rue a poor catch from the second-half restart nonetheless, gifting Exeter possession. Whereas Feyi-Waboso’s spectacular 30-yard run was stopped inches from the tryline, scrum-half Townsend was available to the touch down from shut vary.
The successful margin may and may have been larger for Exeter as Slade missed his second conversion proper earlier than Townsend was despatched to the bin for a deliberate knock-on.
The Chiefs have been awarded a second penalty in entrance of the posts for a sure three factors, however selected to go for the faucet didn’t convert the possibility.
They finally made their strain pay 5 minutes from time as alternative Vermeulen barged his approach over to safe all 5 factors and nudge Exeter forward of Tub on the prime by a degree.
Winger Feyi-Waboso agrees new Chiefs deal
After Feyi-Waboso scored his fifth strive of the season and gained the player-of-the-match award, Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter revealed after the sport the 21-year-old has this week agreed a brand new “long-term” deal to stick with the membership.
The Cardiff-born winger, who’s eligible to play for each England and Wales, can be finding out for a medical diploma at Exeter College alongside his rugby profession.
“He has simply agreed a long-term contract, so I am glad we received that accomplished this week earlier than the sport. I will probably be monitoring him down now for his signature on it,” Baxter informed TNT Sport.
“He’s very decided to combine his rugby along with his medical profession, though I suppose that relies upon how busy he turns into as a rugby participant. We’re making it work for him and he’s making it work for us, so lengthy could that proceed.”
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam informed BBC Radio Bristol:
“We’re disenchanted as a workforce clearly but in addition for our followers, with such end up. It was actually a sport that was going neck-and-neck and was all the time going to return right down to territory and taking part in in the correct areas and we did not put sufficient strain.
“We turned the ball over, we gave penalties away and we gave them alternatives, significantly after half time.
“We had an opportunity to win the sport and we went for the nook and sadly we did not win the line-out after which we conceded proper on the finish too to take the sport out.
“It is simply disappointing to return away with nothing from the sport.”
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter informed BBC Radio Devon:
“Should you watch the sport, you would see we may have grabbed extra management of it actually. We gave some mushy midfield penalties, it is a bit of the bane of my life as a coach actually, however the guys are combating, they’re working laborious, they turned up and so they labored laborious from the off.
“I would truly mentioned to myself weirdly within the altering room, ‘if we did not let Bristol rating within the first 10 minutes, we would win the sport’ and that is truly the way it transpired.
“We saved them at arm’s size, we scored first, we seemed like we would turned as much as play, our set piece turned up and that will get you within the sport and once you’re within the sport and you are a good workforce, something can occur.
“A five-point win away from house, you may’t ask for extra actually. It retains us pushing up the desk and we are the first sport of the weekend, so it pushes strain onto different individuals and that is the way you need issues to go.”
Bristol: Malins, Heward, Vakatawa, Janse van Rensburg, Lane, Sheedy, Randall; Lahiff, Oghre, Sinckler, Dun, Batley, Luatua (c), Thomas, Bradbury.
Replacements: Capon, Woolmore, Kloska, Caulfield, Owen, Marmion, Williams, Ravouvou.
Exeter: Hammersley, Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Devoto, Woodburn, Skinner, Townsend; Abuladze, Frost, Iosefa-Scott, Tuima, Jenkins (c), Roots, Vintcent, Fisilau.
Replacements: Norey, Hepburn, Road, Pearson, Vermeulen, Cairns, Hawkins, Wimbush.
Sin bin: Stu Townsend (45 minutes)
Referee: Christophe Ridley