Exeter Braves 52 Bath United 10

With a clear dominance all over the park, particularly at scrum time, the Braves pack used a scrum penalty to kick deep into the Bath 22. Tom Price soared highest in the line-out, he fed Kvesic, who slipped round the side and drove towards the line. Although he was felled short of the line, the home side recycled the ball into an ‘old school’ driving maul, which allowed young hooker Poole to be driven over.

Skinner obliged with the extras to that score and Exeter’s bonus point try, which came just a minute later. The fly-half given the simplest of finishes after former Bath favourite Devoto had sliced his way through the middle of the Bath defence like a knife through butter.

Somewhat shell-shocked, Bath didn’t really know what had hit them, such was the ferocity of the Braves attack. However, there was to be no let-up from Pellow’s side, who added a fifth try through Short, who literally hared after Tom Hendrickson’s grubber in behind to dot down with ease. Again, Skinner landed the conversion to put his side 33-0 up.

To say it was ‘Men against Boys’ was somewhat of an understatement, but the Braves could only beat what was put in front of them. Bath were battling valiantly, but any time they got remotely near the Exeter try-line, they were met with a physical and unyielding Braves wall of defence.

Their best chance of a dire opening 40 minutes literally came with the last action of the half when they first attempted to go direct through their forwards off a driving maul, before former Plymouth Albion fly-half Alex Davies went cross field looking for winger Bean.

The fresh muscle at scrum time quickly had the desired effect, winning a penalty with their first thrust of involvement. Skinner drove that into the Bath 22 and when Price won the set-piece, his fellow forwards bound around him, their intended destination the Bath try-line.

The Braves made decent progress forward before Witty peeled off the side of the maul. Although he was hauled to the deck, fellow replacement Tuima was close at hand to bulldoze his way over for the score.

The contest was already done and dusted by the time Tuima had added a sixth score, but Bath refused to lie down and their bravery was rewarded when hooker Doughty was able to squirm his way over in the right-hand corner.

It was a rare moment of joy for the visitors, who despite briefly having a numerical advantage with Price sent to the sin-bin for an illegal clear-out, they fell further behind when Short was able to add his second converted try of the night on the hour mark, finishing off neat approach work from Bodilly.

Worboys responded soon after with a second Bath try, racing over on the left-hand side, but it wasn’t long before the Braves were back in full-on attack mode. Tuima led the charge with a busting run through the middle, but as he looked to offload to the onrushing Short, it appeared the Exeter winger was checked off the ball by Bath’s X-Factor star Levi Davies.

No matter, the Braves continued to push forward in pursuit of further reward. They attacked down the right, then the left, before switching back inside where they had created the space for Skinner to pick his spot in a splintered Bath defence to race over for the try, which he also converted.