| Exeter: (21) 29 |
| Tries: Vermeulen, Penalty try, Slade, Tuima Cons: Slade 2 Pen: Slade |
| Leicester: (0) 10 |
| Tries: Watson, Steward |
Exeter beat Leicester 29-10 to extend their impressive home record and move within four points of new leaders Bath.
The Chiefs were 14-0 up inside 10 minutes through Jacques Vermeulen’s score and a penalty try before Henry Slade added a third on half-time.
A Slade penalty made it 24 unanswered points, but Anthony Watson and Freddie Steward crossed to cut the gap to 24-10 as Tigers exerted big pressure.
The hosts held out before Ruisi Tuima grabbed a last-gasp bonus-point try.
Both the Chiefs and Tigers came into the match buoyed by back-to-back European Champions Cup wins, with Exeter fighting back to beat Munster last weekend while the Tigers edged a thriller in France against Stade Francais.
A record crowd of 15,000 crammed into Sandy Park for the festive fixture between two in-form sides and the majority were rewarded as Exeter extended their 14-month unbeaten home run to 23 matches to move up to fourth, while Tigers remain eighth after a first defeat in six matches.
Exeter’s pack laid down an early marker, pushing the visitors back from the game’s first scrum and soon after Vermeulen capped mounting pressure with a close-range finish.
Things quickly grew worse for the Tigers when TMO David Rose awarded a penalty try and sent George Martin to the sin-bin for making an early tackle as the Chiefs looked set to score.
A string of uncharacteristic handling errors from Tigers fly-half Handre Pollard summed up a scruffy afternoon for the World Cup winner, and the visitors also saw Ben Youngs limp off in the first half, just days after signing a new deal.
Jack Yeandle went over, but was pinged for a double movement – following yet another scrum penalty – but the Chiefs did have their third try before half-time when Slade showed dexterity to pick up a loose pass and race under the posts from 50 metres.
Having won just once at Sandy Park since 2014, the Tigers’ second-half challenge looked daunting and they fell four scores behind when more dominant scrummaging gave Slade a shot at the posts.
Yet Leicester responded superbly, dominating possession and forcing the Chiefs back into their 22 for long periods.
Watson coasted over in the corner after Leicester’s forwards had pummelled away at the try line, and nerves were jangling with 11 minutes left when Steward crossed out wide thanks to Solomone Kata’s second try assist of the afternoon.
Yet Slade – the Premiership’s leading points scorer – added steely defence to his 12 points in another superb all-round display to take the sting out of the game.
And it was the hosts who had the final word as Tuima forced his way over with the last play to wrap up maximum points.
Exeter Chiefs head coach Ali Hepher told BBC Radio Devon:
“The try at the end rounded off a really impressive performance from the guys.
“We threw everything into it, they emptied their tanks because we know Leicester are a good side. That gave us the foundations to get a good win.
“We have had a couple of short turnarounds between games in there and they keep bouncing through.
“Our home form has been incredible. Our fans have been unbelievable and the guys have given them something to get behind.”
Leicester Tigers head coach Dan McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester:
“Obviously disappointed, we were flat, we didn’t turn up, it’s as simple as that.
“And you have to give credit to the opposition – they played really well and took their opportunities.
“They won the collisions and as I said to our players, if you win the collision in rugby you give yourself a good chance to win and we didn’t, we were beaten physically out there.
“I’m as surprised as anyone. Sometimes you just have off days and today was clearly that, but we will have a look at it, be very thorough in our review and make sure we are better against Bath.”
Exeter: Wyatt, O’Loughlin, Slade, Devoto, Hammersley, Skinner, Cairns, Sio, Yeandle, Painter, Jenkins (capt), Pearson, Roots, Vermeulen, Fisilau.
Replacements: Frost, Abuladze, Iosefa-Scott, Tuima, Vintcent, Townsend, Hawkins, Wimbush.
Leicester: Steward, Watson, Kelly, Kata, Bassett, Pollard, Youngs, Whitcombe, Montoya (capt), Cole, Martin, Wells, Chessum, Ilione, Wiese.
Replacements: Theobold-Thomas, van Wyk, Heyes, Cracknell, Hatherell, Whiteley, Shillcock, Brown.
Sin-bin: Martin (10)
Referee: Tom Foley.
