Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Exeter Chiefs sting Munster late in Sandy Park thriller

By PA
Henry Slade scores late for Exeter Chiefs - PA

Seventeen points from Henry Slade proved the difference as Exeter defeated Munster 32-24 to register their second narrow Champions Cup victory in as many weeks.

ADVERTISEMENT

Having secured a 19-18 triumph at Toulon last weekend thanks to a last-minute conversion from Slade, they needed a remarkable rally on Sunday with Munster having looked in control when they led 24-13 after 65 minutes.

Dan Frost, Jack Dunne, Ross Vintcent and Slade scored the Chiefs’ tries, with Slade converting three and adding two penalties in front of more than 13,000 at Sandy Park.

Video Spacer

World Schools Festival | Day 1 Highlights

Day 1 highlights of the World School’s Festival Cup saw high drama, controversy and high quality rugby in a hugely entertaining day of rugby. Watch it all LIVE on the RugbyPass Youtube channel

RugbyPass Youtube

Video Spacer

World Schools Festival | Day 1 Highlights

Day 1 highlights of the World School’s Festival Cup saw high drama, controversy and high quality rugby in a hugely entertaining day of rugby. Watch it all LIVE on the RugbyPass Youtube channel

RugbyPass Youtube

Tom Ahern, Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch and Shane Daly scored Munster’s tries, with Jack Crowley kicking two conversions.

Munster took a sixth-minute lead following a frenetic opening, their forwards exerting sustained pressure before a superb 30-metre pass from scrum-half Craig Casey gave Nash a simple run-in.

The hosts soon responded with their first try. A break from full-back Tommy Wyatt, well supported by locks Rusi Tuima and Dafydd Jenkins, took Chiefs into the opposition 22, from where Frost forced his way over.

Exeter Munster
Press Association
ADVERTISEMENT

Slade’s conversion brought the sides level so it was 7-7 at the end of an evenly contested first quarter.

Munster regained the lead thanks to an alert piece of play from Crowley. The outside half saw the hosts’ cover was lacking on the right flank so he chipped the ball forward for Ahern to collect and gallop 45 metres to the line.

Slade reduced the arrears with a 40-metre penalty but his side immediately bungled the restart and Munster were back in the home 22, where they made Chiefs pay.

Clever inter-play between Ahern, Casey and Daly culminated in a long pass from Daly which provided Frisch with an unopposed run to the line. Crowley converted and his side held a deserved 19-10 interval lead.

ADVERTISEMENT

Slade kept Exeter in contention with his second penalty four minutes after the restart, but Munster soon scored their bonus-point try.

Match Summary

2
Penalty Goals
0
4
Tries
4
3
Conversions
2
0
Drop Goals
0
119
Carries
146
7
Line Breaks
14
13
Turnovers Lost
15
3
Turnovers Won
7

A break from Frisch sent Diarmuid Barron on a run deep into the hosts’ 22, from where the ball was recycled for Daly to score.

Exeter immediately responded by sending on five replacements in a bid to galvanise their efforts and, within three minutes, two more followed.

Slade had a chance to kick a simple three points but Chiefs opted for an attacking line-out and it proved the wrong call as the visitors kept their line intact.

However, Exeter were able to maintain the pressure and were rewarded when replacement Vintcent crashed over under the posts.

A minute later, the game turned on its head when Exeter scored a second. Nash was all at sea in dealing with an awkwardly bouncing ball and it fell into the hands of Dunne, who gratefully touched down, with Slade’s conversion giving the home side a three-point lead going into the final 10 minutes.

Exeter were fortunate to escape a yellow card for Harvey Skinner’s challenge on Crowley, but Slade then intercepted a Conor Murray pass before running 50 metres to secure a valuable five points.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 56 minutes 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?

4 Go to comments
N
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
N
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.

43 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ The joy, spirit and obstacles of the rugby pilgrim The joy, spirit and obstacles of the rugby pilgrim
Search