Match Report: Exeter Chiefs 17 – 15 Newcastle Falcons

A try at the death snatched victory for Exeter Chiefs against Newcastle Falcons at Sandy Park in their Round 13 Gallagher Premiership clash.

A penalty was all that separated the sides at half-time as they sat on two tries apiece, one converted. This was followed by an almost scoreless second half before a 79th minute Greg Fisilau try sent the home crowd into rapture.

A year on from making his Chiefs debut against the same opposition, centre Will Rigg opened the afternoon’s scoring. The grunt work had been done within close range of the line by the forwards when repeated penalties led to three separate lineout attacks.

On the third time of asking, Chiefs fed the ball off the set piece to draw in the backline. A line-break from Harvey Skinner put Chiefs on the front foot before innovative handling from Josh Hodge and Henry Slade fed Rigg who took flight to dot the ball down in the corner.

Slade curled the ball around well off the tee to secure the conversion.

An unfortunate misread of the passing option from Ben Coen meant his England U20 teammate Joe Davis was able to intercept a pass meant for Slade to run in a Newcastle try after 13 minutes played. Brett Connon’s conversion brought the two sides level.

After an almost 15-minute stalemate, Newcastle broke the barrier to score a second. Putting a penalty into the corner, they worked their phases off the lineout before Max Clark shimmied out of a tackle to score from five metres out.

Newcastle prop Richard Palframan paid the price for repeated infringements from with five minutes left in the half. A final piece of cynical play at a set piece deep in the 22 was the last straw and referee Adam Leal brought out the yellow card.

Patience paid off when the Chiefs maul trundled over the line minutes later. With one stop called, the backs piled in to add some extra bulk. It added enough momentum and back rower Martin Moloney dove for the line.

An unusual miss from the tee from Slade meant the two sides both sat on 12-points apiece.

However, a penalty five metres from the halfway line slotted by Connon gave Newcastle the lead as the two sides ran in for half-time.

Half-time: Chiefs 12 – 15 Falcons

The marker for the energy level required was set early in the second half when Chiefs tighthead prop Josh Iosefa-Scott broke from his own 10 metre line only being brought down past the opposition’s 10 metre.

Both sides became frustrated with thwarted momentum for large chunks of the second half, however. Repeated penalties at the scrum and breakdown were the key culprits that cost Chiefs dearly.

With the clock ticking dangerously low, the home side struck. A rampaging break from Kane James set the foundations. Skinner recovered his quick offload, flipping the ball to Rusi Tuima who gave the final pass to his teammate, Fisilau, to complete the score.

There wasn’t to be a conversion added, but the try alone was enough to secure a ‘W’ next to Exeter’s name in the table.

Full-time: Chiefs 17 – 15 Falcons

Chiefs: H Skinner; P Brown-Bampoe, H Slade, W Rigg (Tua 46’), J Hodge; B Coen (Hammersley 70’), S Townsend (Cairns 42’); S Sio (Blose 50’), J Yeandle (Norey 50’), J Iosefa-Scott (J Roots 50’), D Jenkins (c), F Molina (Tuima 42’), M Moloney (James 67’), R Capstick, G Fisilau.

Tries: Rigg, Moloney, Fisilau Conversions: Slade

Falcons: E Obatoyinbo; A Hearle (McCallum 42’, Hearle 44’), C Doherty, M Clark (Spencer 56’), B Stevenson; B Connon, J Davis (Stuart 60’); A Brocklebank (Rewcastle 72’), J Blamire, R Palframan (McCallum 56’), J Hawkins, S De Chaves, F Lockwood, C Neild (Leatherbarrow 72’), C Chick (c).

Unused replacements: Fletcher, Scott, Wilkinson

Tries: Davis, Clark Conversions: Connon Penalties: Connon

Yellow card: Richard Palframan

Referee: Adam Leal

Attendance: 9,981