Second half fight pleases Pellow
By Mark Stevens
28/10/18
Exeter Chiefs coach Ricky Pellow praised his side’s second half fight as they hit back to claim a 22-22 draw with Newcastle Falcons in their opening Premiership Rugby Cup fixture.
With 20 minutes remaining at Kingston Park, the Chiefs - who are the current Cup holders - trailed 22-10 as Falcons winger Zach Kibirige helped himself to a hat-trick of tries on his 24th birthday.
However, late touchdowns from James Short and Max Bodilly, who also claimed the game’s opening try, helped ensure a share of the spoils for the Devonians, who must now ready themselves for Saturday’s visit of Bath to Sandy Park.
“I’m very pleased with our second half performance,” said Pellow. “I thought we showed good character to not only come back and draw level, but in the end we put ourselves in a position where we could have won the game. The first half was disappointing from our perspective. We weren’t as clinical as we would have like to have been and we were too loose around the breakdown.
“That allowed Newcastle to get stuck into us a fair bit. They were physical, they put us under pressure, and there were times where we struggled to get to grips with them. Right now, we’ll take the two points, especially given where we were at one stage in that second half, but at the same time we probably feel we let a few things slip out there today.”
Pellow helped to oversee a much-changed Chiefs outfit, which showed 13 changes to their starting line-up that took to the field against Castres the previous week. That said, those called up for duty certainly looked hungry enough and offered a number of positives to take into the coming week.
“For the neutral that was probably a great game to watch,” added Pellow. “It was end-to-end at times, both sides were really going for it in terms of attack, and I thought some of our play at times was outstanding. Obviously there are areas we need to go back and have a look at this week, Newcastle opened us up a couple of times around areas we wouldn’t normally expect, but we’ll re-assess things come Tuesday and then we’ll look to fine tune one of two areas ahead of the Bath game.”
As has been the case for a number of years now, the Chiefs again took the opportunity to not only get some much-needed game time into a number of their senior stars, but a clutch of the club’s highly-rated youngsters were also able to showcase their worth in the North East.
“I thought a few of the guys really stood up out there,” continued Pellow. “This competition is a great tool for us, not just in terms of getting minutes into some of those more senior guys, but for some of our academy players it’s a real chance for them to go out and really express themselves.
“I thought Shorty made a real impact when he came on today. Joe Snow helped to keep the tempo high, especially in that last quarter, and I think you saw with Harvey Skinner, there is a player who is really starting to step up. He’s been down at the Pirates this year on loan, but he’s come in this week and really taken control of the group, both in terms of leadership and his communication.
“He executed the game plan really well, he got the backline moving, got the ball out wide and into space, and then the kick he nailed to level it all up. I thought that showed real mental strength, so fair play to him."
With games against Bath and Harlequins to come over the next fortnight, Pellow is hoping to make full use of home advantage to help propel his side towards qualifying out of the pool stages.
“We’ve got two massive games at home to come now, so it’s important we make the most of playing at Sandy Park,” said Pellow. “Bath, we know, will be tough. They’ve been playing well, they seem to be getting better week by week, so there will be a pressure on us to go out and perform.
“Just talking there in the changing rooms, we know there are certain areas that we will need to work on this week, but equally there is a lot of good stuff that we can take from today and use as a foundation for next week’s game."