Exeter Chiefs advance to Champions Cup semi-finals for first time after beating tenacious Northampton
Exeter 38 Northampton 15
Exeter Chiefs advanced to the Champions Cup semi-finals for the first time in their history but this was not the procession everyone expected it to be after a hugely tenacious performance by Northampton Saints.
Coming into the game bereft of confidence and direction after six defeats in seven games since the restart, Northampton went toe to toe with the Premiership leaders for large parts of this game, disrupting their lineout and attacking the breakdown. Lewis Ludlam and Courtney Lawes carried and tackled like dervishes on the flank while Fraser Dingwall was outstanding at outside centre.
Yet in terms of individual contributions, no one on either side could surpass Emmanuel Iyogun. An injury crisis to four senior loosehead props meant the 19-year-old, recently converted from No 8, was plunged into frontline duty far ahead of schedule. In his trial by fire, Iyogun withstood the heat of the Exeter scrum and even won a couple of penalties to boot.
Exeter’s victory owed less to a collective excellence than a few individual sparks of brilliance. Jack Nowell and Jacques Vermeulen scored two excellent solo tries while another slaloming run from Henry Slade set up scrum Jack Maunder for his score. The other two tries, finished by Vermuelen and Jonny Hill, were from more prosaic pick and go efforts that made a 23-point margin of victory seem a lot more comfortable than it actually was.
Director of rugby Rob Baxter knows full well that Exeter cannot allow their standards to slip in the semi-final against Toulouse on Saturday, but is confident they will rise to the challenge versus the four-time champions. “We can throw it all out there,” Baxter said. “It’s exactly what we need. The bigger the name and the bigger the game the better for us.
“The everything-to-lose feeling was a big test of character for us. Today was as much a mental challenge as anything else. We did not really know anything about what Northampton would bring and how they would be was not great for us. But we dealt with it and came with it. Ultimately we need a big challenge to get the best out of ourselves. We’ll be right on it. I am looking forward to seeing us perform because our focus will be a lot more zeroed in than it was today.”
The nervous energy around Exeter’s performance was evident early on as hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie could not his target on his opening two throws. From the second of those, Dingwall sent in a clever grubber that Nowell gathered only to be bundled over inside in his own in-goal area.
Iyogun withstood his first test at the scrum and from the pick and go series Exeter conceded a penalty for not rolling allowing Dan Biggar to kick Northampton into a fully merited early lead. When Northampton turned over an Exeter maul that was gathering a head of steam, it seemed like a big moment and the visiting team celebrated accordingly.
Maybe that was their mistake. From the resulting scrum, Cowan-Dickie stole the put-in against the head. The ball was moved swiftly into the hands of that Rolls Royce of a centre Slade. The centre always looks to be gliding rather than spritning but can leave defenders clutching thin air with the slightest feint as he did to break the line past Dingwall. He then demonstrated his strength in handing off Rory Hutchinson before stepping past Henry Taylor and feeding Maunder for the score.
Exeter kept up their pressure and scored a second try after 25 minutes. Stuart Hogg initiated the attack by running the ball out of his 22. On it went through the outstanding Sam Simmonds and Tom O’Flaherty until Exeter manoeuvred themselves into the 22. From there, the forwards did the rest with Vermeulen eventually going over.
At that point, you thought Exeter would cruise to victory but Northampton dealt the Chiefs a taste of their own medicine as they mauled their way over the tryline, courtesy of captain Teimana Harrison to leave the halftime score tantalisingly poised at 14-10.
The next score felt crucial and it was Nowell who seized the initiative. At a time when Ski Sunday is traditionally shown on a Sunday night, Nowell displayed his downhill slaloming technique weaving between the tackles of Dave Ribbans, Hutchinson, Taylor and finally George Furbank to give Exeter breathing space.
Furbank was having a rough time of it. The England full back gathered Slade’s grubber only to be pulverised by Ian Whitten and conceded a penalty for not releasing. From there, Exeter kicked to the corner and Hill scored the inevitable pushover try.
Even with defeat all but assured, Northampton continued to make life difficult for Exeter. Iyogun, who director of rugby Chris Boyd said had a “remarkable shift”, won a penalty at the breakdown. In a well-worked lineout move, replacement hooker James Fish was fed ball off the top and his inside ball was met by Dingwall running an excellent try against the grain to score Northampton’s second try.
By now many of the Northampton players were out on their feet and that showed in the final Exeter try when Vermeulen burst through some tired tackles to give the scoreline an added gloss. As a tune-up performance this was perfect practice for Exeter. Now the real business awaits.
