Match Reaction - Steve Salvin

By Mark Stevens
21/5/23

Steve Salvin insists there is no cause for panic despite the Exeter Chiefs Women slipping to a second successive Allianz Premier 15s defeat the weekend.

Having been undone at champions Saracens six days earlier, the Chiefs were this time picked off by fellow play-off rivals Bristol Bears 24-21 at Shaftesbury Park.

The Chiefs had bossed much of the first half to build up a nine-point lead at the turn thanks to converted tries from Flo Robinson, Kate Zackary and Maisy Allen. However, the second half belonged to the Bears, whose scores on the day came from Amy Coles, Sarah Bern (2) and Amber Reed.

Post-game, a disappointed Salvin reflected on his side’s loss, stating: “We’re disappointed, of course we are. We thought we had put a good first half performance together and we felt we were in a good place. Again, the messages that went in at half time went well, but we came out for the second half and just felt certain things went wrong, which then meant we could not get a foothold back in the game.

“I’ll be honest, we deserved to lose and Bristol were the better side on the day. Yes, there are things for us to address and things we need to improve, but we’ll do that and we’ll move on. It’s a three-point loss away from home against a top four side, so it’s not a crisis and there’s no need to panic.

“This is not a massively unusual result, but we just need to make sure the things we didn’t go particularly well, we do much better next week.”

Next up for the Chiefs is the visit of bottom club Wasps to Sandy Park this Saturday (1pm), where Salvin and head coach Susie Appleby will be hoping for an immediate response from their side.

“At this minute it feels like a little bit of a low point, bit it’s a bonus point loss away from home against a top four side. They [Bristol] are a very, very good side and certainly second half we didn’t put the level of performance together that we know we’re capable of.

“Right now, we’ll accept it, we’ll take our medicine and we’ll move on.”

With just two games of the regular season remaining for the Chiefs, the Devonians know they need just seven points to guarantee themselves of home advantage in the end of season play-offs.

“If the game had finished at half time, we would have been pretty happy,” added Salvin. “The second half wasn’t the same standard, but there’s always bumps along the way. It’s a long season and we’ve had some high points and we’ve had some low points. We’ll go away, we’ll regroup and we will look to put things right at the weekend against Wasps.”