Premiership beatings do not come much heavier than this record-breaking West Country derby annihilation. There was nowhere for Exeter to hide on this bright but brutal Sunday in Gloucestershire as a rampant home side rattled up 13 tries to revitalise their ambitions of making the playoffs and inflict the heaviest defeat in the visitors’ top-division history.
It would have been a proper cricket score hadGloucesternot missed half a dozen conversions and it was all but inevitable from an early stage that Exeter’s previous widest losing margin of 43 points would be blown away. Being booed by the Shed is one thing, hearing laughter ring around the ground is another level of embarrassment.
The club’s chairman, Tony Rowe, could been seen laying down the line in the away dressing room after the game, clearly stung by this non-performance from a team theoretically building for next season. “That was my worst day as a coach,” said the head coach, Rob Hunter, part of the backroom staff who helpedExeterwin the European and domestic double just five years ago. “It’s in no way acceptable for us to perform like that and we haven’t tried to hide away from that in the changing room.
“Tony’s entirely entitled to come in and fire in to everybody. He’s put a lot of time and effort into the club and everyone’s expectations should be way, way higher than that. Fair play to Gloucester but we gifted them momentum at almost every opportunity.”
While defeat at Saracens last weekend put a dent in Gloucester’s top-four aspirations, no one will be in a rush to face George Skivington’s side on this kind of form. With three games still to play – away at Harlequins and Newcastle, and at home against Northampton – they sit one point behind fourth-placed Bristol and two points ahead of sixth-placed Saracens.
In addition to the outstanding Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams and the deadly duo of Jack Singleton and Seb Atkinson, who contributed five tries between them, the watching England head coach, Steve Borthwick, will also have taken note of several hardworking England-qualified forwards who must be pushing hard for loftier recognition. The hooker Seb Blake has been a handful all season while the back-rowers Jack Clement and Lewis Ludlow and the prop Afolabi Fasogbon also caught the eye in a vibrant team performance.
To say nothing went right for Exeter would be to put it politely. They had apparently enjoyed an upbeat training week but any semblance of confidence was eviscerated by six Gloucester tries inside the first half‑hour. Two powerful driven mauls brought scores for Clement and Seb Blake before the floodgates truly opened and some extravagant offloading delivered a smashing try for a delighted Ludlow.
The Shed was soon purring again in the sunshine as Chris Harris, Seb Atkinson and Gareth Anscombe added further tries to extend the margin to 36-0. Exeter did belatedly string together a few attacking phases in the opposing 22, which allowed Josh Hodge to put his side on the board, but the slickness of Gloucester’s handling, the inability of Exeter to slow down the ball and some ineffectual tackling all combined to ensure a lopsided contest.
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Perhaps the most outrageous assist of the lot was a 30-yard pass over the top from Williams to his left wing, Jake Morris, which sailed over the heads of multiple opponents and ended with Santiago Carreras sending Williams over. Gloucester are not perfect but their attack coach, James Lightfoot-Brown, has clearly been doing some excellent work.
It was much the same story after the interval as Jamal Ford‑Robinson and Christian Wade, via an unselfish assist from Carreras, brought up Gloucester’s half-century inside 50 minutes. Wade is off to play rugby league in Wigan where he will find life a whole lot tougher.
Even the cavalry off the bench made little difference for the visitors, the defence melting away faster than leftover Easter eggs in the sun to permit a second try for Seb Atkinson and more easy pickings for Singleton, who collected a hat-trick of tries inside 12 minutes. Even the most exhausted London Marathon runners will feel less shattered than the Chiefs when they limp back to work this week. “The reality is that good vibes are not enough,” Hunter said. “We definitely went a little bit missing. Not having a game next week is probably a good thing for us. We’re not going to brush past this.”