Pellow hails fighting spirit

By Mark Stevens

Coach Ricky Pellow hailed the fighting spirit of his Exeter Chiefs side as they kicked off the defence of their LV= Cup crown with a nail-biting 28-27 victory over visiting Gloucester.

Adam Hughes and Fetu’u Vainikolo claimed a try apiece, whilst the Chiefs were also awarded a decisive penalty try two minutes from time, which Ceri Sweeney converted in a 13-point haul for the Welshman.

Even then there was still time for some late drama as Gloucester came within a whisker of claiming victory with the very last kick of the game. Sadly, fly-half Aled Thomas could not land a long-range penalty, his effort bouncing back off the right post and into the arms of the Chiefs who happily closed out the game.

Thomas had earlier landed two penalties and converted all three of Gloucester’s tries, which came courtesy of No.8 Gareth Evans, centre Bill Meakes and prop Yann Thomas.

However, it was not enough to sink a defiant Chiefs side that was boosted by the return of skipper Dean Mumm (pictured) and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie after long-term injuries.

Post match, a happy Pellow said: “We’re really pleased that we got the result, and to get it the way we did at the end with the penalty try was really pleasing in terms of our set-piece. We’ve talked as players and coaches that we’re not going to run away from the fact that first half was not where we want to be. Individually and collectively we were just off it and to be fair to Gloucester they came at us and out-worked us.

“We re-set at half-time, we talked about what was going to get us back in the game and what we needed to do, and fair play to the guys in the second half. They didn’t do it the whole 40 minutes but they did it in patches. When you’re within seven or six points going into the latter stages we knew we could push through with it.”

And so it proved for the Chiefs, who in March lifted the LV= Cup with a 15-8 victory on their own turf against Northampton Saints.

Pellow admitted the desire of his side to defend their title, coupled with the learning experiences of last season when the Chiefs were on the wrong side of a number of narrow defeats, particularly at home, had been pivotal in the latter stages of this contest.

“Dean Mumm just said in the changing rooms that we’ve been on the end of those results when we’ve lost with the last play of the game,” added Pellow. “If you can get within six or seven points there’s always a chance. The guys defended really well and they got us in that position. For the front row to finish it off, considering we weren’t on our game in the first half with our set-piece, was really pleasing.”

With local rivals Bath next up for the Chiefs at Sandy Park next Saturday, Pellow knows plenty of work will need to be done in a bid to tighten up one or two areas of concern in the Exeter game plan.

“We’ll review the game on Monday. There’s some things that we need to talk about and put to bed and improve on, but we’ll go into Bath now really excited about another new challenge – a Westcountry derby at home and hopefully in front of a big crowd,” he said. “If we can get another good result there, it will put us in a really good stead going back into the Premiership.

“However, Bath are going well, they’ve got a big, strong squad, and they’ll probably come down here strengthened from this weekend. We know their set-piece is strong, their driving game is strong, and they’re playing more rugby this year which is full credit to them. We’ll cover them in the week, we know what we’ve got to do and it will be another good challenge for us.”

As has been the case for the Chiefs in recent years, the LV= Cup offers players on the periphery of the first team, as well as youngsters from the club’s highly successful Academy set-up, the chance to showcase their talents to a wider audience - and Pellow felt a number of the match-day squad showed up well on the day.

“It’s probably hard from the spectators’ point of view to see the amount of work Sam Simmonds (pictured) did in the first half,” he said. “Our defensive shape was a little bit disorganised, he was putting in a lot of tackles and a lot of hard work. From an academy perspective, he fronted up.

“It was also good to get Luke Cowan-Dickie back up and running and getting in there and showing the energy he can bring, and Mummsy got a good 60 minutes under his belt. From that perspective it was really pleasing. Stu Townsend came on in a tough 10 minutes to control the game and finished it off, so that was very good also.”

Although it was Exeter’s second half display, not that of the first 40 minutes, that Pellow felt was among the real highlights of this latest success on home soil.

Pellow continued:  “Usually you go in and talk about your tactics and how you’re going to play in terms of wind, we put it down to the individual actions of the players and the emotion and energy they could bring in the second half.

“Our set-piece was working well and our patterns were working well, we just weren’t finishing off the little bits. That was one or two per cent from all the individuals as a group, we needed to get a bit of control back on the game.

“It was about those guys having 40 minutes to go out and prove to the crowd and themselves that they could do it. Playing into the wind is always a challenge but it probably helped us. They came out, carried well and got a bit of structure back into the game. We needed to carry more as it was hard kicking into the wind, but we managed it well in patches and got the result in the end .”