2/4/2008

Sport

Rugby - Esher fail to get off the mark

Exeter Chiefs                  26
Esher                                  0

ESHER fought bravely but failed to get on the scoresheet against a  promotion-chasing Exeter Chiefs side on Saturday.

Playing in wet, blustery conditions, the Chiefs had a strong wind at their backs in the first half and wasted no time in opening the scoring.

After Esher had been penalised for pulling down a maul, Tony Yapp kicked to their 22-metre line for a lineout.

Simon Jenkins found Chad Slade with a pin point throw to set up a driving maul that crossed the Esher line allowing Shane Kingsland to score.

Esher had most of the possession for the early part of the half but struggled to gain any territory with a kicking game,  forcing them to recycle the ball endlessly in a forlorn effort to escape their half.

Their handling was impressive but occasional errors were inevitable and it was from an Esher knock-on that Exeter extended their lead.

Regained possession in  decent field position on 18 minutes, the home side attacked with Lewis Stevenson and  Mark Fatialofa combining to burst over the gain line.

Quick hands by Yapp and Gary Kingdom created space for Josh Drauniniu to outpace the last defender and run in a try from 30 metres. Yapp again converted to give Exeter a 14-0 lead.

The game continued in a pattern of Esher’s pick-and-drive game being punctuated by the occasional turnover and home attack.

As the half progressed, Esher’s dogged play began to show signs of producing positive results and the Elmbridge side gave their hosts a fright when back row Michael Blakeburn burst through to set up a back-line move that Exeter only just snuffed out on their try line.

After the half time break the Chiefs were forced to adopt their opponent’s tactics for the second half as they tried to make headway into a wind which showed little sign of abating.

With the forwards dominating possession,  Exeter forced their way into the Esher half and, while the visitors had succumbed to regular errors, the the Chiefs’ execution was far more precise.

As a result, Esher were forced to infringe persistently to halt their hosts’ progress.

After a general warning by the referee to skipper Duncan Cormack, the next indiscretion by lock Mark Butterworth saw him trudge off to the sin-bin on 50 minutes.

Exeter scored their third try while Esher were still down to 14 men with Toby Freeman rounding off a powerful Chiefs attack.

Esher were down to 13 men for a short period as Matteo Barbini joined his team-mate in the bin after blatantly trying  to break up another relentless attack from an offside position.

Although the home crowd began to lose their patience with Esher’s continual offending to disrupt the waves of Exeter attacks, the Chiefs kept their heads and got their just reward for their constant pressure 10 minutes from time.

Sean Marsden joined another rampaging Chiefs maul and nicked the ball off the forwards to touch down for his side’s fourth try of the afternoon.

The final try secured a bonus point for Exeter and maintained their second place in the National League table, four points ahead of third place Nottingham.

Having secured their place for next season last week, Esher dropped to 11th.

First printed in: News & Mail Series