Alright follow that then. Absolute madness in the midlands this week as Bath somehow put up 48 points and lost away at Northampton in a game that just seemed to rain tries.
Disappointingly, come Sandy Park on Sunday, the only rain was of the traditional kind, although this was a good game with plenty of action, four scores each leading to a tense finale to go along with the unveiling of a very promising youngster.
One of the big themes of the buildup on TNT was about Red Bulls trying to grow cohesion (which seemed to have been on everyone’s word of the day calendar). This is something I think we all suspected was going to be the big challenge for this year given the turnover in players and staff, and something I think most fans have got plenty of patience for. For now anyway. One interesting take on this though came from Flats, who pointed out that, without the threat of relegation, we could try and grow a team with some attacking flair instead of having to take the pragmatic option at every turn. I can get behind this even though I am still a bit iffy on the ringfencing of the league.
Also iffy, why are Chiefs wearing one of our old home kits?
After the rapid start we made at homes last week the boot was on the other foot today and it was not an auspicious start for Red Bulls. I remember thinking last week that we were very keen to play without having done the hard work and I think nothing sums that up better than whatever Zack Henry was thinking in going for a dinked Crossfield kick from his own twenty-two with less than a minute on the clock. Chiefs promptly charged down and we were seven down immediately.
He did redeem himself somewhat with a lovely offload that set up, via a few hands, Wade going over for his first of the afternoon.
Beyond that it was mostly going our way. Chiefs looked nowhere for me for much of the first half and we enjoyed a huge amount of ball and territory which told through another try in the same corner for Max Hicks. A try that absolutely everyone in the stadium expected Christian Wade to finish given the position he received the ball. Defensively we looked quite robust holding Exeter back in the middle of the park but again it was out wide where there were troubles. Werner Kok being exposed twice by some wide attacking moves from Chiefs before then mis-reading a cross field kick at the other end to miss out on a fairly simple score. Which brings us to the new king in the North.
Alright that’s a bit much maybe, but it’s probably worth remembering the tale of the next twenty minutes because my word is Jake Dalziel going places on the evidence of today (and how nice is it that for once that isn’t straight out the door)
The twenty fifth minute and Harrison Obatoyinbo comes off worse from a bit of a ropey tackle, so off he comes for a HIA and on comes the youngest looking 18-year-old you’ve ever seen. Henry goes to fullback and Dalziel slots in at fly half. Scoring himself the second youngest Newcastle debut ever.
His first action is to take the ball from a lineout and get completely poleaxed by Immanuel Feyi-Wabosi. But not before he manages to sneak out a beautiful cross field kick that Kok really should have scored from. Having made an instant impression, and drawn the praise of BoD on commentary, he then went on to further the legend by throwing a lovely no look offload, again while being clattered, as part of the move to spring Hicks down the right. For his final trick he turned provider to Wade, taking the ball flat to the line and throwing a gorgeous dummy into offload combo to put the winger in for his second.
As bright as we were though, Chiefs were not great in the first forty and after the break they came on much stronger, going over almost immediately and really starting to turn the screw. It was only a very questionable decision from Henry Slade that let Wade burgle his way to a hattrick, and century of Prem tries. Shortly after Chiefs were in again with a gadget-arms like finish from Stephen Varney but a forward pass in the buildup got us off the hook.
Another bright spot came from the subs bench around the hour mark as once again we looked brighter and more energetic once the benches emptied; Ollie Leatherbarrow was excellent again and Samson Adejimi had good cameo at hooker. However, for as dynamic as our pack looks in the open field, the set piece today was questionable at best (lineout defence aside as we continue to cause teams problems on their own ball). On our own throw we seem very reluctant to maul the ball, even down at the five we don’t go to the rolling maul that every other team in world rugby has in their back pocket. And then there is the scrum, which creaked badly today, giving up a string of penalties.
All of this is to say that we were clinging on for large periods of the second half, which only got worse as Exeter grew into the game, especially with the introduction of Michael Hooper who very much schooled us in the dark arts on the deck. In the end we couldn’t see it out, and all credit Chiefs were good value in the second half.
POM – Christian Wade; his only job in this side is to finish tries and he did that three times over for a deserved hat-trick. Probably kicking himself over that one he donated to Max Hicks tonight though as he now sits one behind Chris Ashton.
Two points at Sandy Park is not to be sniffed at though and every week we look better and better. The win will come soon with November’s home tilt against Harlequins, who also didn’t win today after capitulating at the death away at Sale, looking like a match that could decide the identity of this year’s basement dweller. A few cup games to get to before then though with a trip to Parc y Scarlets next Saturday in the EPCR Challenge Cup.
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