Innard and Armand put Chiefs on track

By ROGER PANTING

Exeter …………….24pts

Tries: Innard 26, Schickerling 49, Woodburn 65, O'Flaherty 75

Conversions: Simmonds 49, 65

Gloucester ……..15pts

Tries: Clarke 7, Carreras 70, Chapman 75

EXETER turned the form book on its head as they gave in-form Gloucester a lesson at Sandy Park.

Leading up to the match, Exeter had lost their last three games whereas Gloucester on recent form were the best side in the Premiership having picked up 24 points from their last six fixtures.

However the game didn't pan out that way as Gloucester were second best in all areas for most of the match with two late tries giving them a highlyflattering final scoreline.

Exeter's head coach, Ali Hepher, said: “We fought and carried hard and it wasn't until 15 minutes from the end that they got anything going.

“Their driving maul is a major factor so credit to our forwards coach, Rob Hunter, for coming up with a plan to deal with it.”

Surprisingly, the muchvaunted Gloucester pack was bullied by an understrength Exeter eight in which Jack Innard and Don Armand excelled.

Behind the scrum, it was no different as Josh Hodge, Joe Simmonds and both wings all looked sharp as opposed to a pedestrian Gloucester who had only Ollie Thorley to compete on the attacking front.

Exeter should have taken an early lead but, with the line at his mercy, Armand fumbled a welljudged cross-field kick from Simmonds.

Minutes later, the outside-half launched another but this one was less successful. It allowed Gloucester to counterattack in style with Thorley tearing past a couple of defenders to take his side into the opposition 22. From there, the visitors moved the ball wide before a well-timed pass from Kyle Moyle sent Freddie Clarke in for the opening try.

Driving over: Exeter's Patrick Schickerling scores his side's second try

That score came against the run of play as the Chiefs dominated the opening quarter. An elusive run from Tom O'Flaherty had been the catalyst for the Exeter forwards to bombard the Gloucester line.

However, despite the concession of a number of penalties, Gloucester were able to escape with their line intact before they suffered an injury blow when Lloyd Evans was helped off with a knee injury to be replaced by Adam Hastings.

Immediately afterwards they suffered a further setback, Innard finishing off a driving lineout to bring the scores level at the interval.

PICTURES: Getty Images

Exeter would have been the happier as they turned round with the keen wind in their favour after having enjoyed 78 per cent of the possession.

After the restart, Billy Twelvetrees was yellowcarded for persistent team infringements with Chiefs immediately capitalising when Patrick Schickerling drove over from closerange.

The visitors changed four players in quick succession to try and reverse their fortunes but it made no difference as Exeter scored a third when Olly Woodburn had all the time in the world to collect a cross-field kick from Simmonds.

Twelvetrees returned from the sin-bin in time to see the home side score their bonus-point try when a clean break from Jack Maunder provided O'Flaherty with a simple run-in.

Exeter second row Dafydd Jenkins was yellow-carded which allowed Gloucester to respond with two tries in quick succession from Santiago Carreras and Charlie Chapman to bring them within a whisker of a bonus point but that was far more than they deserved.

Over the line: Gloucester's Freddie Clarke scores his side's first try