| Castres (12) 12 |
| Pens: Dumora 4 |
| Exeter Chiefs (12) 27 |
| Tries: S Simmonds, Ewers, Maunder, Woodburn Pen: J Simmonds Cons: J Simmonds 2 |
Exeter Chiefs started their Heineken Champions Cup marketing campaign with a formidable 27-12 bonus-point win at Castres.
The guests took a deserved lead when Sam Simmonds crossed out extensive earlier than Dave Ewers added a second strive.
Chiefs have been pegged again by 4 Julien Dumora penalties to finish the primary half stage, however Jack Maunder scored the third strive after the break.
Olly Woodburn completed off a flowing backs transfer for the bonus-point strive.
Exeter had suffered 4 defeats of their final 5 Premiership fixtures, however there was no signal of any hesitancy as they inflicted a primary house defeat for Castres in 11 months.
The English facet welcomed again quantity eight Sam Simmonds for his first membership begin since October, and it was the England worldwide who kick-started the scoring after being fed in house by Maunder.
The hosts didn’t have the identical efficiency of their assault, however the boot of Dumora saved them within the recreation, regardless of Ewers powering over from shut vary for Exeter’s second strive.
The scoreboard didn’t mirror the 2020 champions’ dominance till Maunder powered over from the bottom of the ruck.
Then the front-foot energy was changed by operating guile as Stuart Hogg made a trademark break earlier than placing Woodburn by for an unopposed run-in for the fourth.
House and away fixtures towards South African facet the Bulls comply with within the pool levels for Exeter earlier than they welcome Castres to Sandy Park within the return fixture in January.
‘A bit of additional Exeter zip’ – what they mentioned
Talking to BT Sport, Exeter Chiefs head coach Ali Hepher mentioned: “Now we have educated effectively for a very long time, however we had a bit of additional Exeter zip about us this week and we pushed that by on the pitch.
“It wasn’t all our personal approach and they’re a troublesome staff, however we needed to put on them down and we managed to attain some good tries off the again of it.”
On the breakdown: “We have been in there so quick previous the ball we have been nearly blowing previous them, so it was about us sustaining our high quality.
“Each level on this competitors is absolutely vital, with a most of 20 [to play for], so it’s a must to take as many as you’ll be able to. Taking yet another away from house is vital and we all know we now have to again it up subsequent week, however we are going to take pleasure in this one.”
Line-ups
Castres: Dumora; Palis, Combezou, Zeghdar, Nokosi; Le Brun, Doubrere; Tichit, Barlot, Hounkpatin, Nakarawa, Staniforth, Babillot, De Crespigny, Andron.
Replacements: Colonna, Guerois-Galisson, Guillamon, Hannoyer, Kornath, Raisuqe, Kockott, Seguret
Exeter: Hogg; Nowell, Slade, O’Loughlin, Woodburn; J Simmonds, S Maunder; Sio, Yeandle (c), Williams, Jenkins, Grey, Ewers, Tshiunza, S Simmonds.
Replacements: Frost, Hepburn, Iosefa-Scott, Van Heerden, Grondona, Becconsall, Kata, Hodge