Chiefs send Albion home empty handed
Moorsman
By Moorsman
February 1 2009
Exter Chiefs beat Plymouth Albion 29 - 0 and send their Devon rivals home empty handed.
Match Review
Chiefs 29 Albion 0
Sandy park - Saturday 31st Jan 2009
Exeter Cheifs never looked like losing in what turned out to be the proverbial match of two halves.
The first half turned out to be a pretty dire affair with both sides playing arial ping-pong. Many Exeter supporters must have feared that the Chiefs had been sucked into another war of attrition with their Devon rivals. The only score of the half being a Steeno penalty.
Tommy Hayes steals Albion ball
However the second half saw the Chiefs play with the pace and penetration supporters have come to expect this season. Even with Josh Drauniniu playing with an injured arm for most of the game Albion had no answer to this expansive rugby. They had clearly marked Josh as a danger to them but he still featured heavily in two of the tries. Paul McKenzie was a great 'cover' signing by Pete Drewett and continued his try scoring with two in quick succession shortly after the break. Tis takes Paul to 14 tries from 9 starts! Shaun Marsden continued vhis run of scoring but the final word went to the forwards with Richie Baxter being driven over for the bonus point try.
Tom Johnson was given the MoM award but my award would go to The Tribe sponsored Lewis Stevenson. His was a great all-round performance, spoling Albions throw, tackling well and making great yards with ball in hand. Barging his way to the line, leaving Albion defenders in his wake but not quite having the space to do a 'Tuohy'.
As for Albion they tried but rarely broke the gain line and didn't look like scoring. In fact the Chiefs didn't even offer them the opportunity of a penalty attempt at goal. One has to wonder at the ambition of a side with a 49 yr old hooker on the bench.
Dawe prepares to join the fray.......
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To be honest in the first half with the amount of kicking and handling erros that were going on I could not see where that sort of scoreline was comming from. Personally I thought it was a classic game of to halves, when we came out for the second half we more clinical in what we did and Macca took his two tries amazingly well. If we can keep him next year then we will do well.
I thought the refereeing of the scrum was odd, JP Doyle appeared to punish chiefs for being the stronger pack, how did the Albion loosehead get away with his jack in the box approach to every scrum? or is it me?
Thought Steeno had a poor game, his kicking from hand was positionally poor ( I have allowed for the wind) I thought Paul Mac was awesome as was Tom Johnsone. Left the ground with a nice positive feeling, we just need Leeds to slip up now please.
Have no idea why Tom Bedford was replaced by Matt Cornwell I don't think he went well at all. No real pace and lost the ball in contact way too much. I certainly didn't see form that shows he learnt his trade at Leicester.