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Highlights: Gloucester vs Exeter Chiefs

Champions Exeter have started their defense of the title with defeat

Exeter Chiefs began their Premiership title defence with a defeat as a last-gasp try from Jason Woodward gave Gloucester a 28-21 win on Friday, ending the champions’ 17-match unbeaten run in thrilling fashion.

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The Chiefs overcame Wasps to claim victory in last season’s final, but they were denied at least a share of the spoils in the final seconds at Kingsholm as Gloucester prevailed in Johan Ackermann’s first game in charge.

Exeter number eight Sam Simmonds and Gloucester lock Jeremy Thrush traded doubles in the first half, their tries converted by Gareth Steenson and Billy Burns respectively as the two sides went in level at 14-14 at half-time.

Steenson was sin-binned two minutes after the restart for a late tackle on Woodward, but Gloucester were unable to capitalise on their 10-minute numerical advantage.

Ben Morgan gave Gloucester the lead for the first time in the contest in the 56th minute, only to be pegged back nine minutes from time when Olly Woodburn stole the ball from Ollie Thorley and raced down the left to touch down.

Centre Henry Slade converted and had the chance to seal the points with a late penalty following a Gloucester infraction at the scrum, but he pulled his kick wide of the far upright.

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Gloucester then worked their way up to the Exeter 22 and, after the ball had been spilled backwards, Billy Twelvetrees found a gap in the defence and offloaded for Woodward to finish out wide to secure a bonus-point win.

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AM 41 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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