Pellow full of praise for his Braves

By Mark Stevens

Coach Ricky Pellow was full of praise for his Exeter Braves side as they returned to winning ways in the Aviva Premiership A League with a 40-3 victory over Bath United.

Having been undone narrowly by defending champions Saracens Storm in their opening fixture, the Devonians produced a powerful display at the Recreation Ground to collect all five points on the night.

Tries from Ben White, Chrysander Botha, Sam Simmonds, Ollie Atkins and Matt Jess were the highlights for the visitors, who wrapped up their success through the kicking boots of Will Hooley and Joe Simmonds.

Bath, who struggled to cope with the more intensity of the Braves throughout, countered with an early penalty for Adam Hastings. However, that was their scant reward on a cold and wet night in the ancient Roman city.

Post-match, a pleased Pellow said: “Last week against Saracens we blew a few cobwebs out of the system, but I thought tonight was a really pleasing performance. Individually, everybody took a step up from last week and as a group they really played well.

“We talked in the week about certain areas of the game that we needed to cover and they put that into practice. We gave them no space to play, a bit like we did against Saracens, and it was another step up in intensity and energy.”

Pellow continued: “We talked about being relentless, getting after them and being physical from the outset. I thought out back-row of Sam Simmonds, Ben White and Kai Horstmann led from the front on that and then the other guys followed.

“To only concede three points is a massive positive to our defence and it’s something we can really build on moving forward.”

Next up for the Braves is their trip to Bristol on December 21 and Pellow is already relishing the encounter, insisting it will be another great opportunity for players – young and old – to show their on-field worth.

“A lot of those guys, whether they are young guys looking to develop or they are the senior guys within the squad, they all put their hands up tonight,” said Pellow.

“For me, it was great to see Rat [Haydn Thomas] and Will [Hooley] form a great partnership and real control things and then bring on young guys like Jack Maunder and Joe Simmonds and it not really change things.

“For guys like those, it’s great for them to feel that intensity and pressure of playing in the A League. Over the last four or five years we’ve had lots of young players come through, using this competition as a massive tool to aid their development.”