Hepher happy with victory

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs assistant coach Ali Hepher praised his side as they wasted little time in rediscovering their winning formula in the Aviva Premiership with victory over visiting London Irish.

Having gone down narrowly in their opening league fixture of the season at Bath seven days earlier, the Chiefs were back on song at Sandy Park as they ran in six tries in a 38-11 success.

England international Jack Nowell led the way with two tries, whilst there were also touchdowns for Gareth Steenson, Don Armand, Luke Cowan-Dickie and James Short (pictured).

Steenson - on his 150th league appearance for the Devon club - weighed in with a further four conversions, while in reply Blair Cowan claimed a consolation try for Irish, whose other points came courtesy of two penalties from fly-half Chris Noakes.

Post-match, a happy Hepher was quick to praise the efforts of the Exeter pack in setting the platform for much of the home side’s attacking endeavours.

“It was important to get back on track,“ said Hepher. “We let one go against Bath – for a number of different reasons – so it was important to get that home win in front of some great support to get our season up and running.

"We are really pleased. We made a lot of good decisions out there and a lot of areas of our game improved as well, which is promising for the future.

"Our forwards did a good job early doors and that gave us a platform to get a good win. That was why we were in a strong position – we had been seeing a lot of quality action.

"It slowed down a bit in the final quarter - the game inevitably goes like that when you are in front. We need to work on our mental ability to cope with that and keep doing what we were doing for the rest of the game."

Certainly the Chiefs bossed much of the proceedings and there were a number of stand-out displays, including that of Nowell (pictured), who looked red-hot on his first return to club action following the Rugby World Cup.

Also back were the likes of Tomas Francis, Henry Slade and Geoff Parling, whose Exeter debut lasted just five minutes before he was forced from the field with a groin injury during the second half.

"We have good options in midfield which will allow us to look at things through the season,” continued Hepher. “All the boys that have come back from World Cup duty have been chomping at the bit - even Geoff [Parling] who played a lot of minutes.

"He's been ready all week to play and as it is a new club to him, he wants to make his mark. All the lads have jumped straight in and they are easy to manage."

But whilst the Chiefs were able to reflect on a win that lifted them to second in the table, new Irish head coach Tom Coventry reflected on another loss for his side.

He said: "We were disappointing and I thought that Exeter were great. I thought that they were physical, expansive and played a proud performance while we were poor in stages.

"There were times under the goalposts when we held out, 20 phases I think before they squeezed over. There were glimpses of good times there but we weren't good enough to hang in there - which is disappointing."