Chiefs win to set up Saracens decider

ROUNDUP PWR CUP

By BEN JAYCOCK

EXETER Chiefs ran in six tries to secure a commanding 42-12 victory over Loughborough Lightning at Sandy Park to put themselves back in contention to set up a top of the table Pool A decider against Saracens next week.

Lola Whitley opened the scoring before Ellie Tromans responded for Loughborough, but Sofia Bekir Fuente crossed to give Exeter a 14-5 half-time lead.

The Chiefs dominated after the restart, with Alessia Skeates, Emily Robinson and Hannah Sams adding tries before Merryn Elworthy completed the rout. Liv Mc-Governe converted all six Exeter tries.

Amelia Williams scored Loughborough’s second try, converted by Tromans, but the visitors struggled to contain Exeter’s second half attacking power and also lost Emily Peters to the sin-bin.

Exeter boss Oli Bishop said: “The big thing for us was looking at where we could improve from last week, what we could build on and what we wanted to go after. We talk a lot about ourselves, our process and the opportunity to grow.

“Physicality was a huge area we wanted to improve after the Sale game. We felt we could do better there and really push it, and I thought today we showed that. You’ll see it in the gain-line success, the speed of our ball and defensively in the number of turnovers we created through dominant contact. That was a huge positive.”

In yesterday’s other encounter, Sale Sharks overwhelmed Leicester Tigers 41-10 in their Pool A encounter, with Amelia Hyndman scoring twice.

Leicester struck first through Georgie Ling-ham, but Sale responded strongly, with Hyndman crossing before the interval.

The visitors dominated the second half as Hyndman completed her double, while Charlotte Fray and Sharifa Kasolo also touched down.

Elizabeth Goulden kicked three conversions as Sale secured an emphatic victory. Leicester’s difficult afternoon was compounded by Abileigh Priestnall’s second-half yellow card.