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'Don’t tell my wife!' – Slade’s cheeky take on Exeter’s big win
By PA
Henry Slade described Exeter’s first Gallagher Premiership victory of the season as “better than sex” after the Chiefs beat west-country rivals Gloucester 22-15 at Sandy Park.
Exeter had not won a Premiership game since May, losing eight on the bounce this term.
But prop Josh Iosefa-Scott’s 74th-minute try saw the Chiefs home as they climbed off the basement above Newcastle.
Asked for his verdict on the result, England international and Exeter fly-half Slade told TNT Sports: “Better than sex. Don’t tell my wife that!
“It was awesome. Confidence has been low. Naturally, when you lose games on the bounce, you do lose confidence.
“But the boys have been scrapping and fighting. There has been a lot of heartache, and to come out on the right side today makes it all the better because it has taken so long.”
Exeter led at the break following touchdowns for hooker Dan Frost and centre Tamati Tua, with Slade converting both scores, as Gloucester were reduced to a solitary Santi Carreras penalty.
But tries in quick succession after the interval for fly-half Gareth Anscombe and replacement prop Jamal Ford-Robinson, one converted by Carreras, put them ahead.
Carreras, though, also missed a conversion and penalty, and Exeter closed the game out via a Slade penalty and Iosefa-Scott’s try.
Reflecting on Exeter’s losing run, Chiefs rugby director Rob Baxter said: “I have obviously felt the pressure because I want the team to win, the players to feel success here, we want to bring supporters through the gate.
“But to be fair, Tony (club chairman Tony Rowe) and the board have been very supportive.
“I have never had a conversation of ‘win next week, or it’s all over’ or ‘this has got to change’. But at the same time, they have expected us to to turn it around over a period.
“Gloucester are not a team short on confidence at the moment – they have had some good results against good sides – and fair play to our lads, they have stuck in there and stuck to most of what we tried to put in place.
“We perhaps could have had more control in the game, but ultimately we found a way of fighting our way through it.”
It was a poor day at the office for Gloucester as their push to feature in the play-off places stalled ahead of hosting Sale Sharks next Saturday.
“We were massively inaccurate in the first half. Our lineout faltered, our handling faltered, we dropped the ball,” Gloucester rugby director George Skivington said.
“I thought the second half we were a little bit better in what was a scrappy game. Fair play to Exeter, they made it scrappy. The first-half was definitely our worst first half of the season in the Premiership.
“I think if you are a little bit off your game, you get stung. From our point of view, I am frustrated with the inaccuracy. We pride ourselves on accurate rugby, and it wasn’t there today.
“It was about as bad a start as you could get down here. We drop the kick-off, miss a lineout and they are never going to score an easier try than what they got given.”
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Latest Comments
"He is certainly aggressive in the tackle but too slow in the offensive animation" this is exactly what you get with Farrell, surely this can't be a surprise?
Passionate leader, aggressive defender, excellent kicker, zero running threat, can't draw defenders, constantly squanders attacking ball with speculative kicks because he can't run or draw defenders, has only ever performed in teams with dominant packs.
Go to commentsWhy would you think they would?
Haha look who's talking! Hello? Can you just read what you wrote about Leinster to yourself again please lol
I'm really not sure why you're making this point. Do you think Ireland are a better team than the All Blacks, where those players would have been straight in? This is like ground hog day the movie with you. Can you not remember much of the discussions, having so many readers/commentors? Yup, 26/7/8 would have been the perfect age for them to have been capped by NZ as well.
Actually, they would obviously have been capped given an opportunity earlier (where they were ineligible to for Ireland).
TTT, who was behind JGP at the Hurricanes, got three AB caps after a couple of further seasons acting as a backup SR player, once JGP left of course. In case you didn't see yourself contradicting your own comments above, JGP was just another player who became first choice for Ireland while 2nd (or even 3rd/outside the 23 in recent cases) for Leinster. And fair enough, no one is suggesting JGP would have surpassed TJP in three or four years either. He would have been an All Black though, and unlike in your Leinster example, similar performances from him would have seen TJP move on earlier to make way for him. Not limited him like he was in Ireland. That's just the advantage of the way they can only afford so many. Hell, one hit wonders like Seta Tamanivalu and Malakai Fekitoa got rocketed into the jersey at the time.
So not just him. Aki and Lowe both would have had opportunities, as you must know has been pointed out by now. It's true that the adversity of having to move to Ireland added a nice bit of mongrel to their game though, along with their typical development.
Aki looked comfortable as the main 12 in his first two seasons, he was fortunate SBW went back to league for a season you could say, but as a similar specialist he ultimate had to give the spot back again on his return. There's certainly no doubt he would have returned and flourished with coachs like Rennie, Wayne Smith, and Andrew Strawbridge, even Tom Coventry. All fair for him to take up an immediate contract instead of wait a year of course though.
It's just whatever the point of your comments are meant to make, your idea that these players wouldn't have achieved high honors in NZ is simply very shortsighted and simplistic. I can only think you are making incorrect conclusions about this topic because of this mistake. As a fan, Aki was looking to be the Nonu replacement for me, but instead the country had the likes of Laumape trying to fill those boots with him available. Ditto with Lowe once Rieko moved to center.
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