The northern hemisphere rugby season is a marathon not a sprint and here was another fluctuating contest to underline that ongoing reality. Exeter really should have had a try bonus point to complete this significant victory over an injury-ravaged Sale but this result has still given a healthy nudge to their chances of re-emerging as play-off contenders in the final furlongs of the Premiership campaign.
A fourth consecutive league win not only propelled the Chiefs back up to fourth in the table but served notice that there could yet be a late twist in the play-off tale with the Chiefs’ pack, in particular, rediscovering a bit of momentum. With six regular season games left they now sit within five points of second-placed Saracens and four of third-place Harlequins with plenty still to play for.
Had a charging Sam Skinner been awarded a potential fourth try late on, belatedly cancelled out for an offside offence committed 90 metres back downfield, their satisfaction levels would have been higher still. Head coach Ali Hepher reckoned some of their first half rugby was as good as anything they have produced in the league this season but, from 19-0 up, no one foresaw a second half which ended with Sale nicking a last-gasp bonus point.
It made it the 12th game in a row that an Exeter game has been decided by nine points or fewer, though the Sharks were initially a long way short of their best on a cold, breezy afternoon and their prospects of making the top six are now receding by the week. Now back in seventh position, they also suffered a heavy injury toll with England’s Raffi Quirke among those forced off prematurely.
Quirke was concussed in a collision with Scotland’s Skinner and has been replaced in England’s extended squad to play Ireland by Northampton’s Alex Mitchell. Sam Underhill and Nic Dolly have also been called up by Eddie Jones while Alex Dombrandt’s participation is in doubt after catching Covid last Friday.
Such is life for every rugby coach these days. Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, also lost Lood de Jager before the game through illness but after the game he suggested that additional injuries to Cobus Wiese, Cameron Neild, Coenie Oosthuizen and Byron McGuigan were less of a worry than his side’s first-half attitude: “We have to be better and today was a step back, in the first half certainly. We’ll take the bonus point but I am not happy with it.”
Exeter, though, looked as energised as they have in a while, spearheaded by their South African flanker Jacques Vermeulen who marked his first game since last May with two forcefully-taken tries. Two operations have been required to restore the damaged hamstring that has sidelined the 27-year-old Vermeulen since last May but he looked fully restored to fitness here.
“He showed the qualities we’ve been missing,” confirmed Hepher. ”We’ve been as keen as Jacques to see him back out there. He has been injuring most of our first team in training.”
A collective mental decluttering since the New Year also seems to be helping the Chiefs find a second wind. Exeter are often at their most effective when they keep it relatively simple and they blew away a few more cobwebs here. Fast, direct and purposeful, it took them just six minutes to breach the Sale line, a nicely timed inside ball from Sam Maunder finding his winger Olly Woodburn who stretched to score.
The Chiefs should probably have had a bonus point tied up before half-time and squandered a couple of clear opportunities, not least when the lively Maunder, a former England Under-20 captain who spent the early months of the season playing for Taunton Titans in National One, broke clear after a dominant home scrum but could not quite connect with Joe Simmonds outside him.
Simmonds also chipped ahead when a potential 4-on-2 overlap was crying out to be exploited but Exeter – or to be more exact Vermeulen – did manage two hard-carrying tries before the interval as a reward for the Chiefs’ persistent pressure, the second of them after Sam James had been sent to the sin-bin for deliberately knocking down an attempted Stuart Hogg pass.
How Chiefs would have loved to have Vermeulen available for the final they lost against Quins last year and how much he would love to propel them back to Twickenham again. To do so, though, Chiefs will have to be more clinical in the final quarter, with Skinner’s raucously acclaimed late ‘score’ ruled out for offside against James Kenny, another lively performer, when the ball was initially turned over close to the home line.
Sale responded with a close-range try from the replacement Curtis Langdon, required as emergency back-row cover, and AJ MacGinty took long enough over the missed conversion to soak up any remaining seconds.
From Exeter’s perspective, even so, this was still an important step in the right direction.
