Pellow hails squad strength

By Mark Stevens
5/2/17

Exeter skills coach Ricky Pellow hailed the increased strength of the Chiefs' squad after they secured a home Anglo-Welsh Cup semi-final with a convincing 35-7 win over Bristol.

The Devon club will play host to Harlequins in the last four next month after they produced the win necessary to ensure that they would finish as table toppers in Pool 2.

The Chiefs ran in five tries at Ashton Gate, two of them penalty tries, alongside further scores for Shaun Malton, Henry Slade and Max Bodilly, while young fly-half Joe Simmonds completed the scoring with conversions to all of those scores.

Bristol countered with a late converted try from prop Jamal Ford-Robinson, but it was scant reward on an afternoon when their Westcountry rivals proved too strong in every department.

Post-match, Pellow said: “It’s been a real good couple of weeks for the club and for a large group of players. To get a semi-final place, having come here in what was a very tough game, is very pleasing.

“As coach, I’m very proud of the players and what they have achieved. Today, we had to fight for everything, especially against a big Bristol pack who wanted to slow things down, but we stuck to the task in hand and in the end we got our rewards.”

The Chiefs led 14-0 at the break thanks to Malton’s early touchdown and the first of the penalty tries. England international Slade extended their lead before Bodilly raced over for the all-important fourth try just past the hour mark.

At 28-0, Bristol countered with Ford Robinson’s try, but it was the visitors who finished the stronger, claiming another penalty try when a close-range scrum was deliberately dropped by the home side.

Pellow added: “We had a period in the game where we went off script a little bit, but the pleasing thing from my perspective was the way we came back and made the correct decisions to get our tries.

“As I said, it wasn’t easy out there - we had to fight for everything - but the character of the guys was first class and they’ve got their rewards.”

With the Chiefs using the past fortnight to integrate young and old within their squad, Pellow believes the fact his side have advanced into the semi-finals underlines the strength in depth of the player pool at Sandy Park.

“In the past we’ve tended to use a lot of young players in this competition,” added Pellow. “We’ve done that again this year, bringing through a number of those guys, but we’ve also allowed some of some our leading players to gain valuable playing time, whilst at the same time also getting some rest.

“It means moving forward we’ve got a big group of players, all of whom are fit and raring to go for what should be a huge game against Wasps next week.”