Exeter Chiefs 45-21 Bristol Bears: Olly Woodburn leads way with rapid hat-trick

■By MARK STEVENS

Olly Woodburn rolled back the years with a first-half hat-trick as Exeter launched their Prem Cup campaign with a comfortable victory at Sandy Park.

The 34-year-old winger was the star of the show, scoring three times in the opening quarter to put Rob Baxter‘s side firmly in control and underline that there is still plenty of life left in the veteran’s legs.

No.8 Kane James added two more tries, with Ethan Roots and a penalty try completing the Chiefs‘ tally as they eventually saw off a spirited Bears fightback.

Pat Lam‘s visitors had their moments and threatened to make a game of it after the interval, but ultimately Exeter’s power and attacking edge proved decisive.

Match action

Earlier, Bristol actually had the first chance of the afternoon, only to waste it in spectacular fashion. After just four minutes, Gabriel Ibitoye raced through following a razor-sharp attack and appeared certain to score. However, the normally deadly winger dropped the ball as he attempted to ground it over the line.

It was a let-off the Chiefs immediately exploited.

Woodburn opened the scoring in the right corner after a neat move involving Harvey Skinner, then doubled his tally with another clinical finish, this time from a looping pass from Will Butt.

The hat-trick arrived not long after, Woodburn this time picking up possession at the base of a ruck, before he spotted an opportunity and went himself, burrowing over for an opportunist pick-and-go score.

Bristol finally found a response as half-time approached, centre James Williams powering over close to the posts after the Bears had worked their way into a promising attacking position. AJ Mac-Ginty converted to give the visitors hope.

However, any thoughts of a home wobble were quickly extinguished after the restart.

Second half

James finished a slick left-to-right attack, with Roots supplying the final pass, before Roots got himself on the scoresheet, James provided the impetus from a lineout and Roots forced his way over from close range.

To their credit, the Bears refused to surrender. Winger Ollie Harris finished in the corner to reduce the deficit before the visitors were awarded a penalty try, Exeter debutant Sam Harris sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on.

Suddenly, the Chiefs were only 10 points clear, but it was exactly the kind of test Baxter wanted from his opening competitive fixture – and his side responded.

The Chiefs regained control when Bristol replacement Harry Randall illegally stopped a close-range maul, resulting in a penalty try. And James put the result beyond doubt slate on, completing his brace as the Chiefs’ scrum powered over from five metres.

Moments

“We went down to 14 men when we were 10 points up, with a quarter of the game still to play, and those moments almost brought the best out of us,” said Baxter.

“We could have looked around and thought, ‘This is getting a little bit tough now, what are we going to do?’ Instead, we upped our attitude and our effort.”

For Baxter, there was plenty to like about an opening performance which was far from perfect but contained enough quality to suggest his side are already finding their rhythm.

“My overriding feeling today is that we were pretty good,” he said. “We had good attack, we were physical, we scored a lot of tries and at times we looked very clinical in the first half.

“There are still things we can improve. Our line-out was off at times, we got a little loose at a couple of breakdowns and gave away a couple of soft penalties. But outside of that, most parts of our game held up really well.”