Match Report: Exeter Chiefs 14 – 17 Leicester Tigers

A last-gasp try from Tommy Reffell put the spoilers on the Gallagher Premiership opening weekend at Sandy Park for Rob Baxter’s Exeter Chiefs as Leicester Tigers came away with the narrow victory.

There was an unexpectedly early Premiership debut for Paul Brown-Bampoe when he was called onto the pitch after only five minutes when independent doctors called for Ben Hammersley to be sent for a HIA.

As predicted during the week – and as is the case in most of the encounters involving Chiefs and Tigers – it was a brutally physical game from the off.

Josh Hodge had the first chance at points of the day when he lined up a penalty attempt for the posts. The kick rebounded off the left upright and though Joe Hawkins and Olly Woodburn were in chase, the two Chiefs men didn’t have the fire-power back-up to be able to withstand the Tigers’ onslaught.

Sadly, Niall Armstrong’s day was brought to an early end when the scrum half, who spent a chunk of last season on the injured list, had to be helped from the field having been caught at the wrong angle in a tackle.

Leicester were brought down to 14 men just shy of the half hour when Tom Cairns took a quick-tap but Izaia Perese didn’t give him the required space before flying in for the tackle, thus earning the Tigers man a yellow card.

Demonstrating the intensity and the dogged slog for points that was the first half, the opening points occurred on the crack of half time as Leicester’s fly half Jamie Shillcock called for the ball to slot a drop goal.

Half-time: Chiefs 0 – 3 Tigers

The Chiefs rung the pack changes at the beginning of the second half and the tide seemed to ebb slightly in their favour in the immediate aftermath.

A line break from Harvey Skinner was the catalyst. With ball quickly making its way to Immanuel Feyi-Waboso on the wing, the powerful England international broke three tackles to keep his feet and feed Greg Fisilau five metres out.

The Chiefs number eight carved past the last defender and over the line for Exeter’s first points of the day. Hodge curled the conversion around well to secure the extra points.

The bread and butter of the Chiefs, the tap-and-go produced yet again just shy of an hour played. Ross Vintcent took the first carry and when Cairns assessed his options at the breakdown he realised no eyes were on him, so the scrum sneakily took ball himself and dived over to the left of the Leicester bodies defending the breakdown.

Hodge added the conversion to take the Chiefs to 14 points.

Leicester clawed points back on 63 minutes when two driving mauls on the Chiefs line in quick succession broke a gap in the home defence and Hanro Liebenberg was able to force himself through it for the try.

Shillcock kicked the conversion to take the Leicester men’s score tally into double digits.

There was trouble for Leicester with just nine minutes left to play. Solomone Kata came in with a shoulder and high on Jack Yeandle on the Tigers’ 10m line. Unfortunately for the former Chief, he was shown a red card having already been removed from the field by medics following the clash.

With less than a minute left on the clock, Will Haydon-Wood became the latest player to be shown a card – a yellow for a high tackle.

Frustration reigned for Chiefs when, with the clock in the red, they were not able to withstand one last assault on their line. With bodies littered all over the whitewash in front of the East Terrace, the referee emerged from the quagmire to signal a try.

The conversion left an additional bad taste in the mouths of the Exeter men as Leicester came from behind to give Michael Cheika his first victory in charge.

Full-time: Chiefs 14 – 17 Tigers

Chiefs: J Hodge; I Feyi-Waboso, B Hammersley (Brown-Bampoe 5’), J Hawkins (Haydon-Wood 71’), O Woodburn; H Skinner, N Armstrong (Cairns 24’); S Sio (c) (Goodrick-Clarke 46’), D Frost (Yeandle 46’), E Painter (Iosefa-Scott 40’), R Tuima (Tshiunza 46’), R Capstick, E Roots (Tshiunza 12’, Dunne 70’)), R Vintcent, G Fisilau.

Tries: Fisilau, Cairns Conversions: Hodge 2

Yellow card: Will Haydon-Wood

Tigers: F Steward; J Bassett, I Perese (Kelly 48’), S Kata, O Hassell-Collins; J Shillcock (Volavola 65’), J Van Poortvliet (Youngs 59’); N Smith (Cronin 59’), C Clare (Theobald-Thomas 55’), J Heyes (Cole 55’), H Wells (Chessum 79’), O Chessum (c) (Joussain 70’), H Liebenberg, O Cracknell, K Hatherell (Reffell 59’).

Tries: Liebenberg, Reffell Conversions: Shillcock, Volavola Drop goal: Shillcock

Yellow card: Izaia Perese

Red card: Solomone Kata

Referee: Tom Foley