Match Reaction - Ali Hepher
By Mark Stevens
31/12/22
Disappointed Exeter Chiefs head coach Ali Hepher insisted lessons would be learnt in the wake of his side’s 35-3 Gallagher Premiership defeat to leaders Saracens.
The Londoners were in imperious form at the StoneX Stadium, running in five tries through Andy Christie, Sean Maitland, Marco Riccioni, Alex Lewington and Nick Tompkins.
It was, however, the performance of skipper Owen Farrell which grabbed the headlines, the England international producing a man-of-the-match display to ensure Saracens head into the New Year with a ten-point lead at the top of the table.
All the Chiefs could muster in terms of a response was a solitary first half penalty from fly-half Joe Simmonds.
Post-game, Hepher offered an honest assessment of his side’s showing, saying: “Look, we’re disappointed with areas of the game. We didn’t make great decisions, but equally you have to give Saracens a lot of credit for the way they played. The set-piece, the speed they operated at, plus the way they put us under pressure, they were very good.
“Even when we had the wind in the second half, they nullified us, they stuck to task and they just did things right as a collective. There are big learns for us, especially the younger players, but we will get there. We’ve been here in the past, we’ve lost to Saracens in the past, but we have learnt from them and that’s the most important thing.”
In an evenly-contested first half where the Chiefs had to battle against a howling downfield wind, they looked well set when they trailed just 12-3 with two minutes remaining. However, a sucker punch with the last action of the half proved decisive as Saracens extended their lead.
“Being down nine points at the break wasn’t the end of the world with that wind,” added Hepher. “But that two minutes before the break proved crucial. We didn’t kick the ball away, we got turned over, and they put us in the corner and scored from it. That put a totally different complexion on the game.
“Then, right at the start of the second half, we concede another soft penalty, they kick into our half, they get a choke tackle in, win the scrum and then win the penalty and from there we are just chasing the game.”
Having come unstuck for the first time in the Premiership the previous week at London Irish, Saracens - who had 20 internationals in their match-day 23 - certainly came out firing in this final game of 2022.
“We knew there would be a kick back from last week,” continued Hepher. “We did well for a lot of that first half, but those moments either side of half time really hurt us.As I said, we have to take the learns from today and we have to be better for it. Where we are now is about right. We’re middle of the table, but we’ve got work to do. We’ve had a lot of learns during that first part of the season, but we expect the second half to be much better. We’ve got a run of home games now which are vitally important and will ultimately shape our season. We have to target those games and put our stamp on the season.”
Hepher reported that he hopes to have a number of players back for next weekend’s visit of Northampton Saints to Sandy Park.However, he did admit that selections plans have been hampered in the past fortnight with illness and injuries.
“We’ve had a bit of sickness within the camp, but hopefully we’re coming out the other side with that,” he continued. “We’ve also had injuries on top of that, so it’s not been easy because we haven’t been able to field the team we’ve named even on a Friday for a few weeks.
“It’s tough, but we have to deal with it. We went with four back-rowers at the start of the week, yet we got here with one in Christ [Tshiunza]. Thankfully, he was able to avoid to curse. At the same time, it’s meant that Greg [Fisilau] has now played his first Premiership game and others have got minutes into them.”