Chiefs need to build on victory - Hogg

By Mark Stevens
11/12/22

Stuart Hogg described Exeter’s 27-12 Heineken Champions Cup win in Castres as one of the “special nights” for the 2020 champions.

The Chiefs recorded their fourth win on French soil in the club’s European history and also picked up a bonus point as they scored two tries in each half.

They face the South African newcomers the Bulls at Sandy Park in round two and Hogg has urged his team-mates to follow up their impressive victory.

“I’m hugely proud of that performance,” Hogg said. “We talked about having special nights in Europe and we knew coming across to Castres was going to be one hell of a challenge for us.

“To come away with a bonus-point win is everything we wanted. Now the challenge is to back it up next week. We stuck to our game plan and got a bit of a bollocking at half-time. After that we came out and showed them what we are properly about in the second half.”

Four penalties by Julien Dumora kept Castres, unbeaten at Stade Pierre Fabre for the previous 11 months, in the hunt at 12-12 at half-time despite Exeter tries from Sam Simmonds and Dave Ewers. But Sam Maunder and Olly Woodburn crossed in the second half to wrap things up for the Chiefs.

Hogg, who made the bonus-point try for Woodburn, added: “Our game plan was working for us in the first half, but we went off script and didn’t get numbers to the breakdown quickly enough. Credit to Castres they turned us over.

“The two tries we scored in the first half was a bit of us, we went through multi-phases and eventually scored. That’s what we are about, and we needed a little bit more of it.

“Maybe we were concentrating a little bit too much on them and not what we were about. The second half was exactly us and we’ll enjoy this one. We have had 60-70 minute performances this season, but not the full 80. At times it’s not always going to be perfect, but then you get your rewards on night like this.”