Braves side to face Bristol
By Mark Stevens
27/12/19
Exeter Braves coach Ricky Pellow is confident that lessons have been learnt in the wake of his side’s first defeat of the season in the Premiership Rugby Shield at Saracens.
Having opened up their campaign with notable home wins over Harlequins (45-0) and Bath United (52-10), the Braves came unstuck last Sunday they were undone by the defending champions 26-7 at Allianz Park.
Despite taking an early lead through Patrick Schickerling’s converted try inside five minutes, it was the Londoners who hit back strongly, claiming all five points that put them unbeaten at the top of the Southern Conference.
To their credit, the Braves kept going throughout and for much of the second half they dominated both territory and possession. However, they were unable to find a way through the Saracens rearguard, much to the disappointment of Pellow.
“Of course, it was a disappointing result for us,” said Pellow. “We started the game strongly and for much of the second half we were the better side.We created lots of opportunities during that time to rip the game back from them, especially when they went down to 13 men, but we couldn’t quite turn our pressure into points.
“We know we needed to be more clinical and that’s something we’ve talked about this week.”
Next up for the Braves is tomorrow’s short trek up the M5 to face Bristol Bears at Clifton RFC (2pm) and Pellow is calling on his player to adopt a ‘back to basics’ approach for the clash against their closest rivals.
“Despite it being Christmas, we’ve actually managed to get some really good preparation into the guys,” added Pellow. “We’ve talked about what we did well up at Saracens and we’ve also talked about areas which we think we can be better.
“As a group we’ve just talked about trying to keep things simple and go back to basics really. Let’s not try and over complicate matters too much and just do the things that we do and do them well.
“Bristol, we know, will be tough opponents. If you look at their side they’ve got some very good players in there, guys like Hurrell and Madigan in the centre, Stirzaker at scrum-half is an international player and they’ve got some good experience up front as well.
“They’ve adapted their game as well this season, they don’t run exits as much and they don’t tend to play in all areas, so we know it’s going to be a good challenge for us. At the same time, we’re excited about what we can do and what we can bring to the game.
“The Saracens game has gone now and we’ve already reset ourselves. Some of those younger guys will have really benefitted from the exposure they got in that game, but the key thing as always is that we don’t tend to dwell too much on wins or losses. I know if we can replicate a lot of the hood things we did up at Saracens - and we turn those chances into points - then we will give ourselves a great chance to get something from the game.”
The Braves are boosted by the return of several experienced first-team stars, including the likes of Phil Dollman, Stu Townsend, Matt Kvesic, Will Witty and on-loan hooker Kyle Cooper.
EXETER BRAVES SIDE TO FACE BRISTOL BEARS
15 Phil Dollman
14 Arthur Relton
13 Tom Wyatt
12 Tom Hendrickson
11 James Short
10 Harvey Skinner
9 Stu Townsend (capt)
1 Danny Southworth
2 Kyle Cooper
3 Matt Johnson
4 Will Witty
5 Tom Price
6 Josh Caulfield
7 Richard Capstick
8 Matt Kvesic
16 Harry Wilkinson
17 Will Norton
18 Harvey Dunn
19 Stan South
20 James McRae
21 Joe Snow
22 Sam Morley
23 Shea Cornish