| 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 powerful 27-12 bonus-point win at Castres.
The guests took a deserved lead when Sam Simmonds crossed out large earlier than Dave Ewers added a second attempt.
Chiefs have been pegged again by 4 Julien Dumora penalties to finish the primary half degree, however Jack Maunder scored the third attempt after the break.
Olly Woodburn completed off a flowing backs transfer for the bonus-point attempt.
Exeter had suffered 4 defeats of their final 5 Premiership fixtures, however there was no signal of any hesitancy as they inflicted a primary dwelling defeat for Castres in 11 months.
The English aspect 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 area by Maunder.
The hosts didn’t have the identical efficiency of their assault, however the boot of Dumora stored them within the recreation, regardless of Ewers powering over from shut vary for Exeter’s second attempt.
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 working guile as Stuart Hogg made a trademark break earlier than placing Woodburn by means of for an unopposed run-in for the fourth.
Residence and away fixtures in opposition to South African aspect the Bulls comply with within the pool phases for Exeter earlier than they welcome Castres to Sandy Park within the return fixture in January.
‘A bit of additional Exeter zip’ – what they stated
Chatting with BT Sport, Exeter Chiefs head coach Ali Hepher stated: “We’ve educated properly for a very long time, however we had a bit of additional Exeter zip about us this week and we pushed that by means of on the pitch.
“It wasn’t all our personal means and they’re a tricky 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 basically essential, with a most of 20 [to play for], so you must take as many as you possibly can. Taking yet another away from house is essential and we all know we’ve to again it up subsequent week, however we’ll 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
