Chiefs 23 Ospreys 13
Chiefs
By Moorsman
November 18 2012
Exeter Chiefs defeat Ospreys in LV= Cup to head their group.
Exeter Chiefs 23 Ospreys 13
The Chiefs follow up their win over London Welsh with a win against a Welsh opponent based in the Principality. The result against Ospreys wasn't as emphatic as last week but nevertheless a win is a win. Had the Chiefs players shown a little more composure this could have been a bonus point victory. Having said that Ospreys defence was good and they have some speedy players who presented the Chiefs with a challenge. However the Chiefs's young guns showed up well with pace power and enthusiasm well backed up by the more experienced players. Hopefully Dave Ewers injury isn't too serious as he should be in contention for a 1st 23 berth.
It was also very good to see Hoani Tui looking very fit and quick around the park back in action. Added to this Josh Tatupu is clearly recovered from his injury and it won't be long before he's back up to full speed. Great news after the way he started the season.
So, a hard fought victory maintains the Chiefs challenge in this season's LV= Cup which takes a break now as the Prem comes back into focus. It'll be interesting to see Rob's selection given some of the performances over the last two weeks.
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Well it WAS a good result. The Ospreys were far quicker than LW, although I thought they had sympathetic treatment on being off-side; we failed in converting quite a bit of 'red zone'(the current "in" phrase) pressure; Henry missed two penalties he would normally get; Garner upset the flow with his treatment of the scrums.
But, that all said was still a fair performance. If we he hadn't tried 2 or 3 loose 'taps' near our goal-line, and also miss 2 or 3 opportunities to stop The Osprey's 8 it would have been another marvellous defensive display.
As for qualification for the semis Quins have to play at Ospreys which is good but we have to win at Bath and we struggled to beat them at home in the A league so that is no certain result.
LW no longer have a real interest in the competition so I think we can expect them to put out the male voice choir in the next 2 rounds so Quins should get 5 points against them.
It does seem ridiculous that only one of our pool can qualify when it is quite likely that at least one of the pool winners will have a worse record than the team that comes second in our group. It would be fairer if the 4 sides with the best records went through to the semis with 1 at home to 4 and 2 at home to 3 (rather than the 4 pool winners).
Thought Jack Nowell punched above his weight and Dave Ewers looks better every game (according to the offy his injury is a hamstring) - a deserved MOM. Jack Yeandle was busy around the park and his lineout stood up well.
I got the impression that one or two of the senior players were trying to hard to prove a point and held on to the ball instead of offloading or passing out wide at times.
Quote:Exeforever
I was disappointed with the officials' failure to punish the repeated high tackles by Ospreys.
Agreed.
We were also disappointed that the ref seemed un-bothered by Ospreys "rolling back", instead of rolling away to the side. They used this to very good effect & slowed our ball down !
Be sure to treat every day on this earth as if it were your last...one day you will be right. (Jethro)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:11:19:18:17:57 by PhilW2010.
It seemed at times to take an eternity for him to be happy with the scrum, and harked back to last season.
Overall though not too bad a performance by the officials.