Finally a Win...
Sandy Park
By ExTeddChief
March 3 2014
ExTeddChief takes a look at Exeter Chiefs 'nulling' of London Irish
Finally a Win
Exeter Chiefs 18 London Irish 0
So, the Chiefs are in the LV Cup semis and three generations of the family Tribe are off to the Wreck next Sunday. In the meantime it had been a while since the Chiefs had managed to get a win anywhere. Still, London Irish looked like a doable enough side to break our duck against.
As it was though I knew I was going to have to get three tickets for this one. Some friends of the family were in town from Cornwall including one guy who’s about my age but that I hadn’t heard anything from for several years. He fancied a trip to Sandy Park...game on.
Saturday morning means swimming and after that Dad and I talked about the Saracens match over what was meant to be brunch, he’d seen more of the action than I had and the bottom line seemed to be that neither our lineout nor scrum seemed to work for the bulk of the match. If that was the case then no wonder we lost!
So after that it was back home and I rang up my grandparents to say that I had just had “brunch” and would not be requiring “lunch”...I swing round at 1-ish to find this guy Chris, his parents...and a mince and mash combo for lunch! Talk about a communication breakdown! Well, it would be dumb to turn it down but it was obvious I wouldn’t be eating much that evening!
Well as I said, I hadn’t heard out of Chris or his family for ages and what had been his baby nephew was now a member of ECFC’s under 8s side. While he’s certainly a sports fan, he’s far more likely to watch stuff on TV than at a stadium but had heard a lot of good stuff about Sandy Park.
So, showtime. Chris’s first impressions of Sandy Park was that he liked what he saw. What I didn’t like was the construction work going on at the south end of the stadium though. That meant hauling in through an insane queue at the north end...being told that e-tickets couldn’t be processed through the main adult entrance(huh?) then going back to square one and in through the student entrance.
Then bouncing up and down the West Stand steps and still round the back of SW Comms before finally finding our seats. Despite having to wait up for my grandfather a load of times we somehow got to our seats in time for kickoff!
The first few minutes were pretty tight but it wasn’t that long before the Chiefs started to get an edge and it wasn’t long before Chris started to appreciate the quality of the action. It wasn’t long before a Chiefs try looked inevitable but we wound up having to settle for a pen. Slade was on duty today and he did the business.
In the meantime, Irish had their own opportunities but our defence held firm and the Chiefs surged back on the attack, the visitors conceded another pen and got a guy binned, Slade doing the business after we explained to Chris what the sin bin was about.
In the meantime, the visitors had another go at breaking through and got a pen of their own...but it came off the post.
The fact is, Chiefs should have gotten a try before half time but we were still leading at the interval so...so far so good.
Half time saw Chris go off to get the Otters leaving me in my seat with my grandfather for once!
The Chiefs did not hang around in the second half though. While they were attacking the opposite end to us now, the Irish defence didn’t take long to crumble, Chris joining in the Chop as Dollman claimed the credit before Slade converted.
Slight problem, Ben White got himself binned soon after and Irish turned up the heat on us and “hold them Chiefs” was the call of the moment! Hold them they did...awesome work from the defence when I thought an Irish try was inevitable!
And even in terms of attacking, the Chiefs weren’t done and they were over the try line again but just as we started cheering...the Who Wants to be a Millionaire music started up and we had to explain to Chris what that was about! Still, we got the try and Whitten got the credit!
After that, the Chiefs went for more points but came up short. My grandfather went for the bus with three minutes on the clock, Chris and I went there via the toilets after the final whistle.
We got to the bus stop just in time to see the 78 dissapear. Now this isn’t my first BBQ, I knew that my grandfather would be on that bus and that Chris and I could get the 77 back into down, heading back to my place via Mary Archer’s Street. Yet he was bouncing all over the place till I agreed double check the missing old geezer had gotten back home once we were at my place.
The journey on the 77 saw me explaining how the playoffs worked and then back to mine and...guess what, my grandfather had indeed made it home! I briefly invite Chris’s parents round for coffee then checked up on results elsewhere before heading out for the evening. Wuss had gotten an LBP off Quins, a very impressive result by their standards and it means that we have still to mathematically secure another season in the Premiership!
That is for later though. First, that trip to the Wreck awaits, and now we have won a league game for the first time in an age...maybe there’s the possibility of Bath duck with pancakes on Sunday?
Maybe.
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