Hepher bemoans TMO call

By Mark Stevens

Ali Hepher knows his side are not a "million miles" away from challenging for top honours in this season's Aviva Premiership, but he was left frustrated after Exeter Chiefs slipped to their second home defeat of the season against leaders Saracens.

With just minutes remaining at a packed Sandy Park, the Chiefs were denied for a second time in the contest by TV match official David Sainsbury, who claimed there was "inconclusive evidence" to award a late try for Exeter's England international Tom Johnson.

Although watching countless replays of the flanker hurtling towards the Saracens line, Sainsbury was unconvinced Johnson had done enough to claim the all-important score for the home side.

It was a bitter pill for Hepher and the Chiefs to swallow, particularly as they had suffered a similar fate during the first half when centre Ian Whitten was also denied following another consultation between referee Tim Wigglesworth and Sainsbury.

Post match, a frustrated Hepher said: "From his body language it looked like TJ was sitting on the ball, pretty happy with it. It's tough, of course it is, and it's certainly hard when you have momentum that close to the line and you go for a TMO and don't get it.

"The more worrying thing is that we had the ball in possession but were not allowed an advantage. Had we produced the ball once more we had men over and could have finished it. We can't just go to the TMO straight away."

TMO decisions aside, Hepher was encouraged by his side's showing against the table-topping Londoners, who did much of their damage in the first half thanks to a converted Ben Ransom try and a penalty from Alex Goode.

Full-back Goode and Marcelo Bosch added further kicks in the second period, whilst the Chiefs countered with penalties of their own through Phil Dollman and Gareth Steenson (2).

"We are alright, it's a tough top four clash but we came through it all the way," added Hepher. "We were unlucky not to get the try at the end, which would have probably tied things up and a draw would have been a fair result. All in all, though, we attacked well against the best defence in the league, they are tough to play against, but we did create a few opportunities and a few TMOs that didn't quite go our way

"We know we are not a million miles behind them, obviously the result today shows that. It was close and whether that goes the other way at the end, maybe it does, but we are in a good place and playing well.

"We've had a little bit of a break, so getting back into it with this main group of players that are featuring in the first team is good, and now we're look forward to getting stuck into Bath next week."

Having yet to post a top flight victory over Bath, Hepher is well aware of the excitement building ahead of this latest Westcountry derby.

"We may have struggled in terms of results [against Bath], but in terms of performance we have been more than capable of winning a few of those games. We are not worried about that all, we just have to concentrate on our level of performance and we know we have to perform better than we did a week ago up there. We know all of that and we expect that, so it will be exciting as  they're a good side, a good test for us, but if we can get a good win up there, it will set us up nicely for the Christmas period."