Pellow praises young Chiefs

By Mark Stevens
24/7/2016

Ricky Pellow was full of praise for his Exeter Chiefs side as they produced a superb display to advance to the Singha Premiership Rugby Finals Night.

The Chiefs made the most of home advantage at Sandy Park to see off the challenge of rivals Bath, Bristol and Wasps in Round Two of this season’s tournament.

Inspired by skipper Sam Simmonds, who picked up the ‘Man of the Round’ champagne at the end of the day, the Devonians kicked off their campaign with a resounding win over newly-promoted Bristol.

Bath were then suitably dispatched in Exeter’s second outing, before the Chiefs were made to fight all the way by Wasps who, like them, headed into the final game having picked up bonus point wins against Bath and Bristol.

With the game tied at 19-19 heading into the dying embers, the Chiefs worked a brilliant opening for Simmonds, who showed great pace and power to tear down the right flank and in under the sticks for younger brother Joe to convert.

It ensured the Chiefs not only advanced to Finals Night at the Ricoh Arena on August 7, but collected maximum hauls from all three of their fixtures on the day.

Naturally, Pellow was delighted with the display of his side, saying: “I’m really proud of the guys, they fought for everything today and that’s the first time we have won all three games in a day against three quality sides.

“To do it here in front of our home crowd and the way we did was very pleasing. I thought a lot of guys really put their hands up because it’s the first time they have had an opportunity to play in front of the coaches and lay down their foundations for the new season.”

Pellow paid particular praise to Simmonds, who he described as “devastating”, but said the all-round team effort had given him plenty of positives to build on ahead of their upcoming trip to Coventry.

“The most pleasing thing is we played some really good sevens,” added Pellow. “We didn’t use a lot of crash balls, we actually moved it to the edge quite a lot and when you get someone like Sam Simmonds in space, he was devastating.

“Also Max Bodilly had some real good touches and I thought Nick Mason really stepped up for his first taste of action at this level. As I said, there were lots of positives for us and overall the whole squad came together and showed what Exeter Chiefs are all about.”

Exeter’s reward for winning all three games was their progression to Final Nights, but Pellow also revealed he and fellow coach Marek Churcher would also be rewarding their troops with a Cornish delicacy.

“We joked before we started that if we won the group, Marek and I would buy the boys Cornish pasties!” joked Pellow. “From minute one, we came out and won everything, we fought for everything and it was really pleasing to do it here in front of home crowd. The noise they bring when we attack really lifts the guys and it was great to have that support behind us.”