Re-arranged for December 7th

On a cold, wet and windy day EURL re-ignited their season with what was, considering the conditions, a thoroughly clinical victory over Swansea RL in Wales. A 36-0 scoreline reflects the well-executed basics carried out by Exeter on a day when the conditions and standard of opposition could have led to a much grittier and tighter game. Swansea kicked off and after a cagey opening with both teams feeling their way, Exeter opened the scoring after a clever surge down the blind-side by Scrum Half Ollie Francis, who with quick hands and the help of Hugo Fildes, found debutant winger Will Galley to go over in the corner to make it 4-0. After some Swansea pressure in the Exeter 20, the men in green clawed their way back up the pitch with strong running from Rich Hurtley, Gareth Tudor and Galley again. Will Galley was outstanding all game with large hand-offs and solid defence. The resulting back-to-back set of sixes yielded another try, Man-of-the-Match Eddy Payne picking a beautiful line off Francis to crash over. James Hunt converted, 10-0.

With Swansea forced into spilling the ball, it was not long before Exeter were over the line once more. After pulling the defence right with plus-ones from Hurtley and Sage, Hunt took the third phase ball, pirouetted around the defender then stepped the full-back and subsequently converted his own try. 16-0.

Before half-time there was time for one more try, Francis using his gas to step two defenders before running the length of the pitch to score. The conversion made it 22-0 at the break. To their credit,

Swansea kept plugging away and hitting Exeter hard in heavy rain and increasingly treacherous conditions underfoot.

Exeter kicked off the second half and Swansea knocked on immediately. From the resulting set of six, Rich 'Tarzan' Robinson stepped his defender beautifully and ran in a try that epitomised Exeter's display. Disciplined yet creative. 26-0

'The Row' then muscled in on the action, as first Ali Taylor cashed in on a neat scrum move to dive over in the left corner, then Rich Hurtley received a nice offload from Galley to dive over in the right. These two scores and a Hunt conversion made it 36-0. From then on Swansea punched hard up the middle, using their two big props and loose forward to good effect, with Captain Ricki Reckless working hard at the base. However, they could not find a way through Exeter's defence in a pleasing aspect to the performance.

The referee blew up to end a work-man-like and professional performance which sends EURL into the Xmas break with a 'Played 6 Won 4' ratio, third in the table with a game in hand over Glamorgan, who lie one place and one point above them. That game in hand, however, comes against UWIC, in a reverse of the epic played last week. With many new faces such as Hooker Nick Walker and 2nd Row Harry Nosworthy doing their cause no harm, and pushing the established faces, the trip to Cardiff on the 18th Jan promises to be another titanic battle.

Article by Exeter University RL
9 Dec 2005