Exeter 23-8 Titans

Powergen National Trophy

1/4 Final

7th January 2006

County Ground

Kick Off 3.00pm

Exeter 23

Titans 8

V

Earth Titans: 15 Errie Claassens, 14 David Strettle, 13 Anthony Carter, 12 Lee Blackett (Capt), 11 Joe Bedford, 10 WP Strauss (L Strauss 48), 9 Morne Jonker (Brear 48), 1 Jarleth Carey (Golding 62), 2 Nigel Conroy (Hanna 62), 3 Adam Hopcroft (Rawson 62), 4 Gareth McComb (Cochrane 59), 5 Louis McGowan, 6 Scott Donald 7 Hendre Fourie, 8 Jannie Bornman

Replacements

16 Michael Kirkwood, 17 Ledowyk Strauss, 18 Gareth Brear, 19 Neil Cochrane, 20 Jon Golding, 21 John Rawson 22 Neil Hanna.

Exeter: 15 Ward, 14 Murdoch, 13 A Fatialofa, 12 M Fatialofa, 11 Kingdom, 10 Yapp, 9 Barrett, 1 Liddington, 2 Blythe (Capt), 3 Davis, 4 Bentley, 5 Hanks, 6 Walker, 7 Miller, 8 Baxter

Replacements

16 Jenkins, 17 Porte, 18 Gabey, 19 Willis, 20 Wilson, 21 Staniforth, 22 Luff.

Afterwards referee Roberts apologized for his hasty error on 43 minutes. Had he not erred, Carter would have scored under the posts and Roth would have trailed by just 3 points. It was a mistake that Roth could have done without!

Although Roth started much the brighter it was Exeter’s Tony Yapp that got the scoreboard ticking with a neatly taken penalty in the first minute. Just three minutes later incisive back play created an opening for Roth, Carter chipped over for Claassens who if hadn’t knocked on when collecting would have secured the first try of the afternoon.

Roth’s pack continued to dominate and were held up twice in the space of two minutes when a try looked on. In the 7^th minute a WP Strauss penalty leveled the scores.

On 13 minutes Exeter’s Mark Fatialofa was very luck only to receive a yellow card after he reined a barrage of punches down on Roth’s Nigel Conroy. But instead of taking advantage of their numerical advantage it was Exeter who scored next.

Good forward play took Exeter close to the 22, when the ball came out it open side Alan Miller made a good break before spreading the ball wide for Junior Fatialofa to score in the corner for an unconverted try.

In the 27^th minute Roth hooker Nigel Conroy was binned for excessive use of the boot. Unlike Roth however, Exeter did make use of the extra man on the park.

Just past the half hour mark Roth lost their own scrum – possibly the only one so far this season – from the resulting break a good interchange of passes enabled Junior Fatialofa to steam in for his second unconverted try of the game.

As the half drew to a close Exeter began to get on top and Roth started to make silly errors. Roth’s defence held firm when holding up an Exeter drive two minutes into injury time. The last action of the half came on 46 minutes; a penalty was awarded to Roth 7 metres inside their own half. With no time left David Strettle went for the posts, his booming effort hit the left upright just under the cross bar.

Half Time: Exeter 13-3 Roth

Perhaps the turning point of the game came three minute into the second half. The referee was playing a Roth advantage, for some reason he blew very quickly and it was at this point Anthony Carter took possession on the left with no defence to beat and no Exeter full back in position. Had the ref waited just one more second, Roth would have reduced the arrears to just 3 points.

On the hour mark the tie was effectively over, very poor defending by the Roth back line allowed Junior Fatialofa to breeze through for a simple try and complete his hat trick. Tony Yapp added the extras. Yapp nudged the hosts further ahead five minutes later with a penalty in front of the posts.

Chasing the game Roth started to throw the ball around and looked very dangerous for the first time since the first quarter of the game. From a Roth scrum midway in the Exeter half the ball came out to David Strettle, his delicious cross-field kick found Anthony Carter who collected superbly to touch down in the corner for an unconverted try.

Three minutes from time an excellent break down the right flank from Gareth Brear should have resulted in a penalty try and a yellow card for Exeter replacement Adam Staniforth.

With just Staniforth to beat, Brear chipped over the replacement, but before the youngster to collect the ball Staniforth took him out. It wouldn’t have changed the result, but it was yet another display of inept refereeing by Mr. Roberts.

Final Score: Exeter 23-8 Roth

The better side on the day won, but Roth were by no means disgraced or out classed. For much of the game Roth had their fair share of possession and territory, but Exeter made much more of their opportunities than the visitors did.

At times the Roth back line looked a little disjointed with Joe Bedford starting on the wing and David Strettle playing the whole game at stand off. Morne Jonker started his first game for Roth and looked bright and lively, but Bedford’s guidance behind the pack was missed at times.

The pack acquitted themselves magnificently, the front row was outstanding and Jannie Bornman at 8 made his mark.

Roth return to Exeter in the league in just over a month’s time and if they can get all their players fit and playing in their preferred positions, then there’s no reason to doubt that they can reverse the result.

Andre Bester’s Post Match Comments

“In the first half what was disappointing was our defence; our defence was not good down a specific channel. We gave two tries away, we know which channel that was and we did the same with the try in the second half.

It wasn’t the breakdown of defensive systems; it was missing first up tackles. Give them their dues though, they are short stocky players on this pitch and their centre of gravity is pretty low. That’s a problem for us on a pitch like that because we don’t really have players with a low centre of gravity. And that’s what you should have when you play rugby on this pitch, because you can’t really play proper rugby on that.

We had opportunities in the first half where we should have scored. In the second half we came out and the referee acknowledged and apologized for his mistake, when he blew when Anthony Carter was about to break for a try. We were destroying them in the scrums, we were destroying them in the mauls, and we should have had a penalty try.

It was penalty try, it’s not even a question, it was a penalty try and a yellow card. I told the referee that he’d destroyed our cup hopes. I thought his refereeing at times was absolutely disgraceful! In the contact situation they were hanging on to the ball the whole time, at the end he was giving us those penalties trying to make up for his mistakes – but it was too late by then.

There was 20 points that we should have had, we didn’t get them and we gave them on a plate the three tries. It’s a difficult place to come and it’s good for all the young guys to come down here and get the experience and when we return in the next few weeks, we know what to expect. We also know that you can’t play proper rugby on this pitch. We went out there to play running rugby, but we couldn’t play it.

The forwards were excellent, I’ve not coached a set of forwards that will dominate as much as this pack that we have right now. And I’ll tell you now, we are a very, very good pack, it just needs a little fine tuning and that will come in time and I’m very comfortable with that.

Overall I’m very happy with our performance but things didn’t go our way and the referee didn’t allow us to get anything going. I’m disappointed to be out of this competition, but I’m very happy where we are at the moment.”

Harlequins  37-24 Plymouth Albion

Nottingham  34-3 London Welsh

Otley 13-14 Bedford

National Division 1

Roth v Coventry 14 January at Earth Arena.

kick off 2.00pm