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Exeter book first-ever home quarter-final with Champions Cup success

Stuart Hogg is one of the few squad certainties, if fit, ahead of the 2021 Lions tour. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Exeter booked a home quarter-final in the Heineken Champions Cup by beating La Rochelle 33-14 at Sandy Park.

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And it could mean a last-eight clash against holders Saracens later this season, depending on results in Sunday’s final pool stage flurries.

The Chiefs were not at their best early on, but they ultimately cruised to a bonus-point victory and secured a first European quarter-final appearance since 2016.

Number eight Sam Simmonds led the way with two tries, while hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie, flanker Dave Ewers and substitute scrum-half Stu Townsend also touched down, with Simmonds’ brother Joe kicking four conversions.

La Rochelle claimed an early touchdown by wing Kini Murimurivalu, which Ihaia West converted, while they were also awarded a penalty try.

Continue reading below…

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But Exeter were unstoppable in the second half, scoring 19 unanswered points to march into the last eight.

England prop Harry Williams returned after a two-week suspension for Exeter, while Dave Dennis and Jonny Hill also featured up front and scrum-half Jack Maunder replaced an injured Nic White.

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La Rochelle, beaten at home by Exeter in November, suffered an early blow when their captain Romain Sazy went off injured and was replaced by Thomas Levault.

It was a disruptive opening to the game, and both sides struggled to settle as knock-ons and poor passing hampered progress, with much of the action revolving around halfway.

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But Exeter struck from their first attack, punishing La Rochelle after a trademark close-range lineout drive, with Cowan-Dickie touching down and Simmonds converting for a seven-point lead.

La Rochelle were only behind for four minutes, though, responding impressively by attacking from a scrum and sending the powerful Murimurivalu over as he brushed aside three Exeter defenders.

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West’s conversion levelled the scores, yet Exeter hit back as more impressive work by their pack ended with Ewers scoring and Simmonds converting.

But La Rochelle were undaunted by the task in front of them, and they drew level again in the 24th minute after new Scotland captain Stuart Hogg was sin-binned.

Irish referee Frank Murphy brandished a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on by Hogg that blocked centre Geoffrey Doumayrou’s pass to full-back Vincent Rattez.

And Murphy also decided that Hogg’s illegal intervention had stopped a La Rochelle score, and he awarded the French side a penalty try.

The game remained a relatively even contest in terms of territory, yet Exeter were denied a third try on the stroke of half-time, with Joe Simmonds seeing his effort disallowed following obstruction by his team-mate Ian Whitten on West.

Exeter regained the lead after 47 minutes when Sam Simmonds proved unstoppable from just five metres out, and his brother’s successful conversion made it 21-14.

The Chiefs now had momentum, and La Rochelle could not escape from their own 22 as Exeter cranked up the pressure through their forwards.

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And the bonus-point try arrived when Exeter shunted the La Rochelle pack backwards in a scrum, and Sam Simmonds claimed his second touchdown.

La Rochelle were struggling to find answers, and they fell further behind in the 62nd minute as Exeter stunned them through a flowing 70-metre move.

Cowan-Dickie and Sam Simmonds set the ball rolling before replacement centre Ollie Devoto made the telling contribution with a scything break, and Townsend took his scoring pass to finish things off.

Joe Simmonds converted, putting Exeter 19 points clear and making their early-game struggles a distant memory.

– AssociatedPress

Freddie Burns has revelled in his younger brother’s Ireland call-up:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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