Gibson hails his Braves

Pictures: Exeter Rugby Club/Pinnacle Photo Agency

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Braves coach Rob Gibson was full of praise for his side as they maintained their unbeaten home record in the Aviva Premiership A League with a 52-5 thumping of visiting London Irish.

In a one-sided encounter, the Braves were simply ruthless in seeing off the Exiles, running in tries from Alex Brown, Will Carrick-Smith, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mark Foster, Myles Dorrian, Jack Arnott and Tom Cowan-Dickie, whilst fly-half Henry Slade helped himself to a 14-point haul.

Irish's sole response on a miserable night for them was a late consolation try in the game from winger Tom Fowlie.

Afterwards, a delighted Gibson gave a glowing report on the defending champions, who have now won three of their five games to date.



"In those conditions it was a very good performance," said Gibson. "From the outset we wanted the boys to be intense, not chase the game and build a lead, which is exactly what they did.

"The pleasing thing from a coaching point of view was the senior players like Damian Welch, Mark Foster, Nic Sestaret, Myles Dorrian and Junior Poluleuligaga, they all led from the front and showed true leadership skills. Also the communication from everyone, right across the squad, was terrific."

With the Braves already 23-0 up at the break, Gibson said it could have been easy for his team to switch off in the second period. However, the approach was just the same after the half-time respite.

"We were pretty ruthless, especially take the three points at the end to crack the 50 points," added Gibson. "Our first half performance was very strong and sometimes you don't want half-time to come because you can lose momentum. That said, the boys stuck to the plan and kept being relentless for the whole game."