Yahoo Movies Jack Nowell back with a bang as Exeter power past Sale to reach final
No Harlequins-style pyrotechnics here, just the steely purpose of defending champions who are now just 80 minutes from a third major trophy in just over eight months. Exeter are into a sixth successive Twickenham final and it may take more than a few hot-stepping metropolitan types to deny them a third Premiership title in five years.
After the frantic tension of the previous weekend this was, for lengthy spells, very much the controlled, powerful response that Rob Baxter had been demanding from his side. There was also the sizeable bonus of two tries from Jack Nowell on his return to action following knee trouble, with his longtime mate and fellow Cornishman Luke Cowan-Dickie also capping a man-of-the-match display with a trademark burrowing score.
Related: Harlequins into Premiership final after stunning extra-time win over Bristol
There was a generous slug of controversy, too, Manu Tuilagi escaping a red card for a heavy swinging arm to the jaw of the young Chiefs openside Richard Capstick in the third minute. Given the heavy punishments meted out in the week to Dave Ewers and Sam Skinner, there was widespread local surprise when Tom Foley showed only a yellow card. The tackle appeared more clumsy than malicious but it ended Capstick’s afternoon just the same and Baxter later described the disciplinary framework as “incorrect and inadequate”.
This time around there was no rampaging Sale start nor any stunning comeback, either. The entire atmosphere was different – more meaningful, edgy and louder – and it was the Chiefs who began as if the hounds of hell were being unleashed. With Sale down to 14 men and momentarily flustered, Exeter took their time lining up a tap penalty five metres out and, with the referee Foley knocked off his feet in the rush, Cowan-Dickie proved unstoppable from five metres out.
The lead was into double figures after just 11 minutes when Rohan Janse van Rensburg was floored behind the advantage line by Jack Maunder and Henry Slade scooped up the loose ball to set free the pacy Tom O’Flaherty to score. It felt like the Exeter of old – hard-hitting, direct and resourceful – and already it felt as if Sale were going to require something extra special.
Without the craft of AJ MacGinty at fly-half and the bullish Akker Van der Merwe at hooker, however, they lacked the cohesion they would have liked. Rob du Preez kicked one penalty but missed another and their first try came out of nothing, Aaron Reed nicking a restart as Exeter dozed and sending Van Rensburg over in the left corner.
A 15-10 advantage did not reflect the Chiefs’ superiority but their scrum was looking ominous, a massive shove enabling the alert Maunder to escape down the blind side and force Du Preez to concede a close-range scrum that yielded a Chiefs penalty. With some of Sale’s forwards slow to get back in position, Nowell waited for the referee to allow him to tap and go, then drove hard and low over the line to score.
It was the first domestic try the injury-plagued England man has scored since last August and Joe Simmonds’ conversion widened the margin to 22-10. Du Preez reduced the deficit slightly with his second penalty but it did not feel as if a second dramatic semi-final resurrection was on the cards.
The Chiefs, though, were proving strangely fallible in an area where they usually excel. Following another Simmonds penalty they again made a mess of the restart, allowing Sale decent field position from which Van Rensburg scored his second try from Du Preez’s chip. There had been a clear floated forward pass by Tuilagi in the buildup but, for whatever reason, the officials declined to take another look.
Would it prove gamechanging? No. Nowell gleefully touched down his second after a smart cross-kick from Simmonds and the Sale bench did not quite have the heft of its Chiefs equivalent. As the visitors’ director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, put it afterwards: “You don’t win by conceding 40 points unless you’re Harlequins.”
Exeter will need to treat Quins with the utmost respect but as Baxter pithily put it: “You don’t have to defend if you’ve got the ball.” Starve the London club of possession and his serial winners will take a lot of stopping.
