Hunter hails Euro victory

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs forwards coach Rob Hunter was full of praise for his side as they moved to the top of Pool Two in this season’s European Rugby Challenge Cup with an emphatic 33-13 victory over visiting Connacht.

Tries from Will Chudley, Henry Slade, Damian Welch, Dave Ewers and Ben White did the bulk of the damage for the Chiefs, whilst Gareth Steenson’s four conversions took him through 1,500 points for the Devon club.

Connacht countered with a late try from winger Fionn Carr, which was converted by Craig Ronaldson who also added two first half penalties, but it was never enough against the impressive Chiefs.

For Hunter, though, it was the perfect response following Exeter’s last-gasp defeat to Bayonne in their opening European fixture seven days earlier.

“I am very pleased and it’s a fine way to finish this two-week block of European games,” said Hunter. “There were patches from last week that we knew we needed to work on and for large parts of today’s game we got it right. We transferred the game plan onto the pitch very well and there was lots of energy from us in front of our home crowd.”

Connacht, however, had arrived at Sandy Park as Pool Two leaders having collected maximum reward from their opening game against La Rochelle seven days earlier.

From the outset, though, the Chiefs never allowed them to get a grip on proceedings as their direct running, power and speed of play continually tore open Pat Lam’s side, particularly during the first 40 minutes.

“It’s important to get these bonus points, especially at home,” added Hunter. “We’ve seen already with the pool that with us getting five points and them nothing, that could be very important later on. Also, it’s great that the boys are talking about the right things, they want to get after tries and be an entertaining side to watch.

“Today we did a lot of good things and a lot of that was down to us getting the basics right and then making good decisions in behind.”

Again young centres Sam Hill and Slade were at the heart of things, as was man-of-the match Ewers and fellow back-row forwards White and Thomas Waldrom.

And Hunter believes it’s that consistency of performance from players within the Chiefs squad that is helping to drive the club forward on a weekly basis.

“We’ve got some guys on great form and it’s an exciting place to be at the moment,” said Hunter. “Also, a couple of the guys who have not played so much in that first block, they’ve come in again today and they’ve kicked on as well. For me, the good things is that these guys are only going to get better and better.

“As coaches we obviously have to manage things on a weekly basis and come up with good ways to get the best out of the guys in front of the crowds, but we understand all of that and so do the players themselves. It would be easy for us to get a bit loose right now, especially as we are getting some good press, but it’s all about being tough, cracking on with things and doing what we have to do to be a successful side.”

Next up for the Chiefs is two weeks of LV= Cup action against Premiership rivals Gloucester and Bath, before the Premiership kicks back into life with a testing trip to Northampton Saints.

As for Europe, the Chiefs will resume action again in December with back-to-back encounters with La Rochelle, the first of which will be on French soil on Thursday, December 4.

As always, Hunter and the Chiefs will be relishing the opportunity of going overseas and testing themselves against new opposition.

“It’s going to be a very exciting two weeks,” he said. “It’s going to be tough, especially because you have got the travelling to France and we are going to a new place for us.

“We are playing the first game over there on the Thursday night, so there is a big break in between the two matches, but it is really important to get a good start away from home on the Thursday to make the return game at Sandy Park a big fixture.”