Match Reaction - Ali Hepher

By Mark Stevens
25/9/22

Exeter Chiefs head coach Ali Hepher praised his side’s fighting qualities as they maintained their 100% record in this season’s Gallagher Premiership with a last-gasp victory over visiting Harlequins at Sandy Park.

Christ Tshiunza’s late score secured a 43-42 success for the Devonians, who had left 31-7 at the break, but who then had to fight back themselves from a second half try-fest from Tabai Matson’s side.

With 85 points scored and 12 tries shared between the two sides, Hepher admitted that those in attendance were certainly given ‘good value for their money’ in this enthralling Round Three encounter.

“I’m pleased we came through the game as we were in some tough holes out there at times today,” said Hepher. “I’m pleased with our fight to come back, especially at the end, but we’ve really got to learn to kill games off a lot quicker than we did.”

First half tries from Harry Williams, Stu Townsend, Harvey Skinner and Tshiunza helped put the Chiefs firmly in command of proceedings at the break, only for the visitors to counter with scores from Cadan Murley (2), Luke Northmore (2) Tyrone Green and Joe Marchant.

“We will focus on the good stuff, we attacked incredibly well in the first half and the start of the second half, but then we went to sleep a little and they’re a dangerous side and they took full advantage of that. For us to then wrestle it back right at the death was superb, so we should celebrate that, just because it’s a big five points in the Premiership.”

The victory lifts the Chiefs to second in the current standings, joint level with leaders Bristol Bears.

“We’ve worked a lot on our attack, finding areas of space and then going after it, which is what we did,” added Hepher. “Also, our defence and our line-speed also enabled us to pick up tries in that first half, but we needed to kill things off.

“We had real pressure again at the start of the second half, but we didn’t convert it. That’s something we will talk about, along with other areas of our game, because we did invite them back into the game and they took that opportunity.”

It was, however, 20-year-old Tshiunza who stole the headlines with his brace of tries and a hugely impressive all-round performance.

“We know he’s a handful and that’s he got pace, which if you give him the time and space, he will exploit. You saw that with his first try,” added Hepher. “Obviously there are little bits and pieces in his game that we can still work on. However, you saw at the end when we got him on the outside again, there was only one man you were going to back.

“As I said, there are lots of positives to take from the game. Right now, we’ll enjoy this win for what it is, then we’ll come in again next week, looking to make sure we hit the ground running because Sale are going to be yet another tough opponent.”