Braves 52 Irish 5

Exeter Braves 52

London Irish A  5

Mark Stevens at Sandy Park

Exeter Braves returned to winning ways in the Aviva Premiership A League as they swept aside visiting London Irish 52-5 in a one-sided encounter at Sandy Park.

The defending champions were in ruthless mood on home soil as they put to bed the disappointment of their loss at Harlequins last time out to run in seven tries.

Alex Brown, Will Carrick-Smith, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mark Foster, Myles Dorrian, Jack Arnott and Tom Cowan-Dickie all crossed for tries, whilst fly-half Henry Slade helped himself to a 14-point haul.

Unbeaten at home in the competition this season, Exeter once again fielded a powerful line-up, which included the returning Myles Dorrian at centre following his recovery from a broken hand and flanker Phil Burgess, who was brought in as a guest for the night from Championship outfit Cornish Pirates.

From the outset the Braves were quickly into their stride as it took just two minutes for them to break the deadlock. Solid approach work from the pack saw them drive hard at the Irish defence which, after several phases, struggled to contain the forward thrust.

A hand in the ruck ensued from the visitors and up stepped England Under-20 international Slade to dispatch the penalty from 25 metres.

Minutes later and the Braves were adding to their tally as a charging run from centre Nic Sestaret through the middle of the park created the perfect platform from which the  home side were able to recycle at pace to the left where prop Brown was waiting to dot down in the corner.

Although Slade failed with the testing touchline conversion, he was able to add the extras to Exeter's second try which arrived on 15 minutes when imposing lock Carrick-Smith barged his way under the posts following another powerful raid from the Devonians.

It was one-way traffic as far as the Braves were concerned and it got no easier for the Londoners as a second Slade penalty helped to stretch Exeter's lead to 18-0 by the end of the first quarter.

Irish were clearly struggling to contain their rivals, who then came within a whisker of adding a third score when Jack Nowell, Dorrian and Burgess all combined to good effect with a slick handling move, only for the latter to be denied a score by flanker Gerard Ellis, who was duly dispatched to the cooler by referee Thomas Davies.

Exeter duly made their man advantage tell as a sustained spell of pressure deep inside the Irish 22 created the opening for young loosehead Luke Cowan-Dickie to cross for a third try.

HALF TIME     EXETER BRAVES 23     LONDON IRISH 0

Irish's woes were to get no easier after the break as the Braves wrapped up the bonus point inside two minutes as a sharp attacking involving Dorrian and Nowell saw the latter draw the cover defence before offloading to Foster, who did the rest.

Still the merciless Braves kept coming in pursuit of further points and the tactic paid dividends as strong running from No.8 Dave Ewers and replacement scrum-half Rob Coote helped to release Dorrian, who was able to scamper over under the sticks for a fifth try, which Slade duly converted.

The lively Coote was then at the heart of Exeter's next score, the Cornishman taking control at the back of a ruck before showing some fancy footwork to break clear of the cover. Once again the Irish defence was drawn in before the number nine cleverly shipped the ball to the left for the onrushing Arnott to race over for another converted score.

Exeter took the opportunity to run their bench during the final throws of the contest and it was one of the fresh stock, hooker Tom Cowan-Dickie, who added a seventh converted try when he was aided over the line by his fellow forwards from a well constructed line-out move.

To their credit, Irish kept plugging away on a miserable night for them and with three minutes remaining they were rewarded when they exploited an opening wide on the left for winger Tom Fowlie to go over.

It was only fitting that Exeter had the final say and following one final destructive scrum, Slade plundered a second penalty of the evening to ensure the Braves of a healthy half century of points.

Braves: J Nowell (L Treharne 73); J Arnott (T Bain), N Sestaret, M Dorrian, M Foster; H Slade, J Poluleuligaga (capt, R Coote h/t); L Cowan-Dickie (K Davies 68), J Yeandle (T Cowan-Dickie 68), A Brown (L Fairbrother 68); W Carrick-Smith (J Gray), D Welch; J Blanchet (J Conlon 55), P Burgess, D Ewers.

Tries - Brown, Carrick-Smith, L Cowan-Dickie, Foster, Dorrian, Arnott, T Cowan-Dickie; Conversions - Slade (4); Penalties - Slade (3)

Irish: L Hopkinson; T Fowlie, F Horan (M Worrincy h/t), L Peters, C Gaston; M Ward (M Betty 19), C Murphy; J Yanuyanutawa, B Blaney (S Mackie h/t), C Griffiths (C Connor 57); S Moore, J Doherty (J Ramshaw 64); S Malton, G Ellis, A Gray (capt).

Try - Fowlie

Yellow Card: Ellis

Referee: T Davies

Touch Judges: N Williams & A Bickle

Attendance: 915