Lawday targets big response
By Mark Stevens
28/1/18
He gave his side a dream start at Sixways, but Tom Lawday insisted ill discipline cost Exeter Chiefs the chance of victory against Worcester Warriors in their latest Anglo-Welsh Cup encounter.
The 24-year-old forward gave the visitors a third-minute lead when he powered over from close range for the game’s opening try, which was converted by young fly-half Joe Simmonds.
Team-mate Harry Strong extended Exeter’s lead with a second converted try not long after, but the Warriors were able to hit back with two tries of their own before the break through Josh Adams and Dave Denton to leave just two points between the teams at half time.
Denton’s try came during the period when Chiefs lock Ollie Atkins was off the field in the sin-bin and further indiscretions after the break allowed the Midlanders to hit back further.
Tom Howe’s touchdown gave Worcester the lead for the first time in the contest, only for the Chiefs to restore their lead when replacement hook Shaun Malton propelled himself over for a third try, again converted by Simmonds with just over ten minutes remaining.
Sadly, a second yellow card - this time for Wilhelm Van Der Sluys - saw the Chiefs reduced to 14 men once more and the Warriors again made their rivals pay as first Adams powered over for a bonus point score, before replacement Luke Baldwin denied them of a losing bonus point with a score a minute from time.
Post-match, Lawday - a former student at Exeter University - spoke of the disappointment within the Chiefs camp.
“We’re all pretty disappointed in the changing rooms,” he said. “To come all this way and leave with nothing is not what we intended. We trained all week to be disciplined, but we weren’t and in the end that has cost us the game.
“We’ve got off to a brilliant start, especially going two tries up, but we couldn’t quite assert ourselves over the whole 80 minutes. Fair play to Worcester, they played well and really came back us in the second half, but they also fed off our errors. It was our mistakes and our indiscipline that really let them back into the game.”
Defeat for the Chiefs meant Ricky Pellow’s side conceded top spot in Pool Two of the competition to Harlequins and means the Devonians must now beat Saracens on Saturday with a bonus point victory, whilst also home that results elsewhere go in their favour.
“Saracens next week will be a massive battle,” warned Lawday, who is on dual-registered terms this season with the Cornish Pirates in the Championship. “That said, we’re at Sandy Park and we have to make the most of home advantage.
“We’ll come in on Monday, review this game, see what we did well, what went wrong and then we’ll build for another big week. Although we lost today, I think there were still a lot of positives to take from the game. We had some big carries, our clear outs we’re good and in defence we put in some good shots, so there is lots to build on.”