Chiefs go down to narrow defeat
Championship play-off
By Exeforever
April 18 2010
Exeforever reports his view of the play-off match that resulted in a narrow defeat for the Chiefs.
Match Review
London Welsh 16 Exeter Chiefs 15
In many ways both sides got what they needed out of this game. The losing bp means that Exe still top the pool unless Notts win by 50 or thereabouts this afternoon, Welsh got the 4 points that keep them interested in their trip to Doncaster in a fortnight.
The official report covers the game well but Danny took the final conversion from very close to where I was and it was obvious that his footing slipped on the sandy and broken surface so no blame should attach to him for the miss. As to why Foster didn’t try to run around behind the posts: he was tackled as he went into the in goal area and the ref (of whom more later) had to consult the TJ before awarding the try. If he had tried to get to the middle and had the ball stripped everyone would have been saying “Why didn’t he just ground it?”
Welsh played well enough to deserve their win, if nothing else they took their opportunities better so my comments about the officiating are not a complaint about the result (indeed at the end of this piece I see quite a lot that was good about it).
Nevertheless, in the context of the debate on the possible consequences of poor officiating, it was unfortunate that, in my view, the game was marred by two particular refereeing decisions and, to an extent, spoiled by others. The first was the Welsh penalty try. At each of the scrums that preceded the succession of penalties that ended in the penalty try, we had shoved the Welsh pack back several metres, yet Llyr apGeraint continued to penalise us for coming up!! The second was the penalty for offside against Mark Foster when he ran on to a perfectly weighted cross field chip kick by Danny. If the ref gave it on his own initiative then he has xray vision as he was far too far away to be able to judge the alignment, if he gave it on the TJ’s intervention (as appeared to be the case) then the TJ was also several metres behind the line (from where I was sitting). It therefore appeared that the decision was made on the assumption that Foster had to be offside, though they had been unable to spot the Welsh midfield being offside all afternoon!!! Additionally the refereeing of the tackle area was unlike the way that Messrs Richards and Rose reffed it in the last two games and back to the old “anything goes” approach that prevailed before the refs were told to clean it up and, yet again, Haydn found himself with the opposition midfield between him and Danny, 5 metres offside and hence having to take the ball back into the forwards (one reason why the wings saw so little of the ball). I am not blaming the defeat on the officials but these games are difficult enough for all the away sides without getting refereeing that is indifferent (at best) and, had that been the semi final, people would now be saying that the season had been lost on a couple of poor refereeing decsions.
So how does this result affect things? Well, in truth, not very much. We were never going to be able to secure homefield advantage yesterday. That would have rested on Notts losing to Donny this afternoon so were always going to be likely to have to play for it on May 1st. Assuming Notts do win this afternoon they will come to SP with all to play for which means that they will have to come and play rugby not come and spoil. Rather like the away game at Bristol we will have to win by playing to our very best; this has to be better preparation for the semi final than having the dead rubber that a win yesterday and a Notts defeat today would have produced. The injury to Richie Baxter will hopefully not be serious but is potentially the worst outcome of yesterday. His absence meant that Chad became our only “blunt instrument” to make the hard yards up the middle and that fact allowed Welsh to double team him with the result that too much of the time we ended up going backwards at each phase.
Once again the away tribe deserves an honourable mention. However great their disappointment they never gave up and kept it up even after the final whistle. For the majority of the game it sounded more like a home game than an away one. Well done ladies and gentlemen.
Mark W-J hopes that we meet Welsh again in the final. If so I hope that they can borrow the Stoop for the fixture. Esher is a pleasant ground but the pitch was too sandy and the ground capacity and facilities (loos in particular) would be inadequate for the hordes who would join the faithful for a final.
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I just wonder whether it would have been better if we'd brought Dave Gannon on when Richie Baxter was injured and switched Tommy Hayes to 8? It also shows what a fantastic player Richie has been for us this season. I hope the injury isn't too serious.
Well done LW but COME ON CHIEFS.
How crucial was the losing bonus point today? It means that we only (and I don't say that lightly) have to beat Nottingham in 2 weeks time to top the group and get that all important home leg in the semi final.
Lets keep fingers crossed for a premiership ref for the match, preferably Mr Rose, he was superb last week.
C'mon Exe, we can do it.
Tony
You may just get what you wish for.
Quote:3 wheels on my wagon
Budgie was stuck in Africa with the army, was due to fly back on Thu, Macca hurt himself in training on Wednesday.
I know this is probably a silly question but how do u know he hurt himself in training on Wednesday as he was naned in the team on friday?
Quote:3 wheels on my wagon
From a man who knows!!!
Seems your man doesn't know very much....
"Not only that, but Paul McKenzie had to pull out on Friday with an injury picked up in Monday night's second team game, when he had scored a hat-trick to earn a place on the bench with the first team"
Strange, that sequence of scrums happened right in front of me and I don't recall Exeter dominating any of them!?
Quote:Scoreboardman
"The first was the Welsh penalty try. At each of the scrums that preceded the succession of penalties that ended in the penalty try, we had shoved the Welsh pack back several metres, yet Llyr apGeraint continued to penalise us for coming up!"
Strange, that sequence of scrums happened right in front of me and I don't recall Exeter dominating any of them!?
just depends on who you think was standing up. interpretation is all.