Hepher happy to take win
By Mark Stevens
20/10/19
Exeter Chiefs head coach Ali Hepher insisted there was still ‘plenty to work on’ despite seeing his side kick-off their latest Gallagher Premiership campaign with a 22-19 victory over Harlequins at Sandy Park.
Jonny Hill’s first half try, coupled with 17 points from the boot of Joe Simmonds, proved just about enough for last season’s beaten finalists to get off to a winning start.
They were, however, made to work all the way by a strong Quins’ outfit, who themselves countered with two tries from live-wire winger Gabriel Ibitoye and three penalties from fly-half Marcus Smith.
After a lengthy pre-season, one in which the Devon club have already secured a semi-final spot in the Premiership Rugby Cup, Hepher knew the switch-up to the top-flight would always bring a step up in standards.
“We knew that step up in intensity was coming,” said Hepher. “The important thing, though, was that although we found ourselves in a tricky position at times today, where things were necessarily flowing as well as we would have liked, we found a way to coming through and get those four points, which was crucial.
“We talked all week about the intensity of the game and we probably didn’t handle it as well as we would have liked. Now, we’re up and running, we’ve got points on the board, so hopefully everyone can breath a little bit now and we can move on to Friday night up at Bath.”
Next up for the Chiefs is their annul trip to The Rec, where they will tackle a Bath side who themselves will be licking their wounds following a comprehensive 43-16 loss to local rivals Bristol Bears.
Hepher knows from past experience the threat the Blue, Black & Whites will pose and says it’s vital the Chiefs prepare accordingly for a potential backlash from their hosts.
“Bath are a proud club and what Friday shows is that if you are slightly off against anyone in the Premiership, then sides are going to take full advantage,” added Hepher. “At the same time, you have to say Bristol played very well as well. What we will do this is week is analyse everything like normal, we will look at what they will bring to the game, what we can bring to the game, and then put together a plan to go up to Bath and try and win the game.
“The nice thing is we can go up there on the back of picking up four points today.As we always say, any win in this league is to be cherished. Yes, we’ve got lads in there now who are a little grumpy and disappointed with certain parts of their performance, which is fine, but it’s how we now react to that which is key.
“We have a quick turnaround now and we’ve got a big game up at Bath, so it’s important we stay level and do what we do We know today’s performance wasn’t perfect and there is plenty to work on, but at the same time we did a lot of good stuff and we won the game.”