Yeandle praises fighting spirit
By Nigel Walrond
26/3/18
Exeter Chiefs club captain Jack Yeandle admitted they had to “dig deep” before picking up their first away win of 2018 with a 20-18 victory over Bath at the Recreation Ground on Friday night.
The Chiefs led 10-6 at the break, and 17-6 ten minutes into the second half, but Bath came storming back to take an 18-17 lead, only to go down to defeat to a late Joe Simmonds penalty.
“We had to fight for it at the end, and it was a good, attritional game of rugby,” said Yeandle. “Both teams were really scrapping for it and Bath came back into the game and we had to dig deep and kind of go through that extra gear. Coming out with the right result is fantastic work by us, and credit to the boys for putting the shift in and putting the performance in.”
It is victories at Bath on a wet Friday night that could be looked back on as key moments in the season if the Chiefs go on to win the Premiership title again, and 28-year-old hooker Yeandle added: “Hopefully so, but we have obviously still got the rest of our games to get through first, and we have just got to make every minute count now.
“We are in a very precious part of the season and we speak about that quite a lot. There is only a limited time left now this season. There are only a few hours of rugby left, and we have got to make every minute of that count, and every action in that minute count.”
Exeter have often struggled to get going in games at The Rec, and even in their 17-11 victory at Bath last season – their first ever league triumph at the venue – they only did it after producing a very poor first-half display.
“Notoriously we haven’t really put in a decent performance at Bath over the past few years, and even last year, we got the result but the first half wasn’t us,” said Yeandle. “With a bit of a disjointed training week, with the snow affecting what we have been able to do, it has actually been quite good for the lads. We have had a bit of a freshen up, and all we have had to focus on is doing the simple things really well, and we have gone out and done that, and it has had a bit impact on the overall result.”
Yeandle made a brave call after 23 minutes, when Exeter were awarded a simple penalty chance to make it 6-0, but he opted to kick to the corner, and even though the initial catch-and-drive was thwarted by Bath, Jonny Hill was eventually driven over from close range.
“I was probably getting screamed at by the coaches, and they probably see a different picture to what I can see on the pitch,” he added. “For me, I felt we had a good bit of momentum and we had just gone through a good couple of phases and made some decent ground without having to overly exert ourselves, so I thought we were kind of on the front foot.
“I back myself on my calls, and if I get it wrong, they can have a go at me on the Monday!”
The second Exeter try, by Sam Simmonds for his 11th of the season, came after an amazing 24 phases of play, which was a tremendous effort, given the wet and slippery conditions.
“Again, it was simple things done well and it is something we pride ourselves on, to get that over the line after that amount of phases, that is what we are confident in doing and we trust in each other to bang in tries like that.”
Suddenly, though, Exeter went from leading 17-6 to trailing 18-17, and Yeandle said: “That is credit to Bath, they decided to put their foot down a bit and really had a go, and caught us when we lost a bit of the buzz in our defence, and our communication levels dropped a bit and we got a bit narrow in defence, and it was a very clever chip on the outside to get their first try.
“Sometimes you have got to accept it that the opposition have had a good attack.”
But Exeter hit back late on, when Rhys Priestland fumbled the ball, Don Armand hacked through, and from that field position, Exeter gained the match-winning penalty.
“There were some brilliant individual performances out there today,” explained Yeandle. “We made the most of half a fumble, Don put a grubber kick through and showed a really good turn of pace, and all of a sudden, something so simple has managed to put the pressure back on them, and we made that count.”
Sadly the Chiefs picked up lots of injuries in the game, with Phil Dollman probably the most serious with a shoulder problem, but Yeandle laughed off his own problems with an ankle injury.
“I am absolutely fine. It is unfortunate for Phil and we don’t know the extent of it at the moment and we will just have to wait and see, but hopefully, it’s not as bad as it looks.”