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Exeter thumping by Bayonne sets up blockbuster with England rival
By PA
Exeter crashed to a 40-17 defeat to Bayonne in their Investec Champions Cup clash in France.
The Chiefs, already assured of a home tie in the last 16, were punished for their indiscipline as the hosts, who sit fifth in Pool C, ran in six tries.
The defeat means Exeter will take on Gallagher Premiership rivals Bath in the next round.
The French side scored first as outside centre Sireli Maqala sliced through Exeter’s defence with some neat footwork before finding Tom Spring, who showed great pace to score. Thomas Dolhagaray converted to make it 7-0.
Exeter responded through Dan Frost and reliable kicker Henry Slade added the extras to level the score at 7-7.
But Bayonne bounced back after a mistake from Exeter’s Josh Hodge. The full-back failed to control the loose ball and Kote Mikautadze went over.
After Exeter’s Ollie Devoto was shown a yellow card, Bayonne took advantage through Aurelien Callandret, who crossed to make it 19-7.
Bayonne added the bonus point through Victor Hannoun, but the Chiefs scored two quick tries in the second half through Dafydd Jenkins and Rusi Tuima which helped the English side narrow the deficit to 26-17.
Despite Callandret picking up a yellow card for an intentional knock-on, Bayonne’s resolute defence withstood Exeter’s attacking pressure and they managed to score a try of their own through Federico Mori in the 65th minute, making it 33-17.
Yellow cards for Jenkins and Jack Yeandle, either side of Mori’s second try of the game, ended Exeter’s hopes and they lost another player in the closing stages as Joe Hawkins was shown a straight red for a head-on-head collision.
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Who got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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