Dominant display delights Pellow
By Mark Stevens
26/11/19
Ricky Pellow was full of praise for his Exeter Braves side after they kicked off their Premiership Rugby Shield campaign with a 45-0 victory over visiting Harlequins at Sandy Park on Monday evening.
In a dominant display from start to finish, the Braves ran in seven tries to secure the bonus point success in this Southern Conference encounter.
Skipper Stu Townsend and lock Stan South both bagged a brace of tries, whilst there were further touchdowns for Richard Capstick, James Short and Harvey Skinner, who also booted over five conversions.
Post-game, a delighted Pellow hailed his side’s display, saying: “To score 45 points in the way we did, but then not to concede, it was very pleasing. In the past, where we’ve tended to take a big lead, you tend to take your foot off the gas defensively, so the most pleasing thing was that we never did.
“We had opportunities to relax a little, especially during the second half, but full credit to the guys because they fought right to the end. “
Exeter’s win was the biggest of the night in the competition and Pellow says his side should use that as the springboard to push on through the course of the campaign.
“It’s a great start for us,” added skills coach Pellow. “We were able to get a lot of good minutes into a number of players, especially those coming back from injury, so it was pleasing on all fronts.
“I thought the group came together really well and that there were some outstanding performances out there. Young Tom Wyatt looked very good in the midfield, Stu Townsend coming back from injury had a solid game, and I thought Shea Cornish when he came on looked really dangerous with ball in hand.
“Across the board, though, it was a great all-round, team performance. We had talked before about being brave, coming together, and emotionally letting it for one another. It’s all well and good talking about it, but anyone who knows rugby knows it’s ultimately down to the players on the pitch to go out and perform.
“You could see that all of our guys were willing to fight for each other and that’s massively powerful moving forward. As a group we’ve got to use that and go from strength to strength. You can coach the technical and tactical side, but it’s that willingness to fight for one another that is the most powerful thing we can have.”