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Clinical Exeter beat Bath to seal play-off spot
By Peter Thompson
Exeter Chiefs became the first team to seal a Premiership play-off spot and stretched their lead at the top of the table to nine points with a 29-10 bonus-point defeat of Bath at Sandy Park.
Rob Baxter's side stretched their winning streak to four matches on Sunday to secure a top-four finish with five matches of the regular season remaining.
Bath led 10-3 after Nathan Catt ploughed his way over from close range, but that was as good as it got for Todd Blackadder's men.
Centre Ollie Devoto took a pass from Joe Simmonds to cross against his former club and Jack Yeandle burst through to scoot under the posts, giving Exeter a 17-10 lead at the break.
Ruthless Exeter – with England duo Henry Slade and Jack Nowell back in the side – were given breathing space when a penalty try was awarded for an incident which resulted in Beno Obano being sent to the sin bin.
Olly Woodburn rounded off a sweeping move that started on the halfway line by grabbing the bonus-point try in what was ultimately a comfortable victory for last year's runners-up.
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Latest Comments
The difference between Fassi and Le Roux?
Almost 100 tests. Fassi is growing from test to test and is already world class. It’s going to be difficult for Damian Willemse to usurp Fassi at 15 and may find himself destined as the utility back on the bomb squad.
South Africans love hating on their fullback. A proud tradition since Percy Montgomery (before he won us a World Cup). So I don’t pay much mind to the noise that follows anyone who puts on the 15 jersey for SA.
15 is a high risk, low reward position. You don’t dare drop a high ball, certainly don’t shank a kick into the stands. In fact if you’re not kicking 60m torpedoes into the opposition corners - stay at home.
And miss tackles? After everyone else on the team has let a break through - best you not miss!
Only Andre Joubert strikes me as a fullback that has been better than Willie. Yet Willie has been widely panned on a regular basis. Irritating.
Fassi is great. And I’m sure he’s learning a lot from Willie.
Go to commentsNo, Penney's win rate as a Super Rugby coach BEFORE he was given a 2 year contract here, was 23%. He came in with a very poor success rate at SR level.
This loser vibe was borne out over the SR season where we won only 4 games while losing 10. Finishing 9th in a 12 team competition & missing a QF spot was next level DOWN.
There's zero evidence that suggests we will win 10 games (70%) as you predict. I understand there may be new assistant coaches coming on board. At this stage, we can only hope for the best.
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