Frustration for Pellow

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Braves coach Ricky Pellow admitted he and his team had been left frustrated after they saw their hopes of advancing in this season's Aviva Premiership A League undone by rivals Bath United.

In front of a crowd of over 3,000 at Sandy Park on Monday night, the Braves could not quite get over the line as they saw their semi-final dreams ended following an 18-17 loss.

Converted first half tries from Sam Simmonds and Byron McGuigan (pictured) looked to have the home side sitting pretty in this hard fought Southern Group encounter.

However, Bath countered with tries of their own from Darren Atkins and Semesa Rokoduguni, plus eight points from fly-half Ollie Devoto, to ensure they set up a last four date with Worcester Cavaliers next Monday.

Even then, the Braves were afforded a last-gasp penalty to win the game, but skipper Ceri Sweeney saw his long-range effort drift wide of the target.

It was - according to Pellow - a disappointment end to what has again been another encouraging A League campaign for the club.

"Right now we're feeling very frustrated and disappointed with the result," said Pellow at the final whistle. "Looking at the game, we had opportunities to take the game out of the ref's hands and also to take it away from Bath, so we're disappointed not to come away with a result.

"We made a few errors and key decisions which ultimately let us down. That said, full credit to Bath they struck at it throughout and even when we had a period where we could really have asserted our dominance on them, they kept coming back at us and in the end got the result."

Having led 14-6 at the break, the Braves were ultimately undone after the break by Bath two-try blast which came in as many minutes. Atkins was first to cross, finishing off a terrific counter-attack from their own line; then England international Rokoduguni followed him over the whitewash when he brushed aside some soft home tackling.

"With their first try, we had a scrum on their line, we were dominant and going forward, then the ball squirts out of the side of the scrum, we are a man down on the wing, they play to the edges and they score off a turnover on their own line," explained Pellow. "Yes, we probably should have stopped it earlier, but that was kind of the story of the game.

"We gave them opportunities on the night, which they took, whereas we had opportunities and could not get over the line."

Bath's victory meant they advanced with Southern Group winners Saracens Storm into the latter stages of the A League, but Pellow reflected that it had again been a useful season for the Braves, which resulted in wins over London Welsh, London Irish, Harlequins and Wasps.

"There are lots of positives we can take from this year," added Pellow. "Max Bodilly has started most A games and he's playing regularly down at the Pirates; Sam Skinner (pictured) is developing week by week, as are a few other of the Academy lads.

"Again we've tried to use the competition as a bit of a development tool for those younger guys, as well as getting game time into those senior guys that are on the fringes of the first team. Tonight, it was pleasing to blood TJ [Tom Johnson] back from injury. He looked back to his old self as he was energetic, worked hard and he carried well.

"And Barry [Byron McGuigan] scored a great try on his comeback as well. I'm sure both of them will be sore in the morning, but they'll look to reset, along with the other guys, and get the team ready for what is a very important Premiership game against Gloucester at the weekend."