image source, Characteristics of Rex
Attempt: May, Clement, Clark Cons: atkinson
Attempt: Vermeulen 2, John, Woodburn, Fay-Waboso. pen: slade Cons: slade 5
Exeter remained in contention for the Premiership play-offs and closed the gap on the top four with a 38-17 bonus point win over Gloucester.
Exeter's scoring was dominated in the first half by Jack Vermeulen, Dan John and Ollie Woodburn, while Gloucester's Jonny May and Jack Clement responded.
Immanuel Fay-Waboso added the crucial bonus point try and Arthur Clarke responded while Gloucester were on top and Vermeulen scored his second goal to take the game away from the hosts. .
Exeter remained in seventh place, but with two games remaining, they have narrowed the gap to fourth-placed Bristol to four points.
Chiefs knew that if they won by a bonus point they would realistically miss out on the play-offs for the second successive season and took advantage of Gloucester's indiscipline in the opening 20 minutes.
Henry Slade kicked the first three points, with Vermeulen powering over from a driving maul after a penalty was kicked for a corner.
Moments later, full-back John scored his first career premiership try to make it 17-0.
Gloucester responded after flanker Clement earned a turnover and gave the Cherry & Whites a five-metre lineout, scoring a try just days after May said it was “unlikely” he would remain at the club next season. Ta.
Still, Exeter's attack was far more formidable and Woodburn remained undaunted shortly after Fay-Waboso was tackled and dropped the ball over the line.
Slade slipped through the gaps in the Gloucester defense and crossed Woodburn into the corner to extend the lead to 24-5.
However, for the second time, a mistake from Exeter's loose lineout gave Gloucester the lead, with Clement running through the gap to add another point just before half-time.
A long ball from Harvey Skinner over the top allowed England to overlap on the wing and Fay-Waboso scored a vital fourth try to give Chiefs another point early in the second half.
However, Exeter could not rest on their laurels, as Clark charged his second kick and raced straight into space to score a try, with Charlie Atkinson converting to reduce the lead to 14 points after 30 minutes. . rest.
Gloucester had seen their try missed when winger Jake Morris touched his foot, but Skinner recovered well to deny Stephen Varney just in front of the tryline and Gloucester were within inches again.
Exeter's nerves were calmed when Vermeulen put his body on the line to score his fifth goal of the afternoon, handing Gloucester a second successive Premiership defeat in next week's European Challenge Cup semi-final against Benetton.
George Skivington, Gloucester's director of rugby, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“Very disappointed. I don't think we were there today and I don't think everyone was working 100%.
“We talked about it that week, and we knew there was a risk to what would happen next week.” [Challenge Cup semi-final] That crept into our thinking and obviously Exeter were very hungry to get into the top four but I don't think we achieved what we were trying to achieve.
“They were more clinical and in the first half Exeter rode every bobble ball and I don’t think we got on. “We had chances in the first half to keep them under real pressure and Exeter rode on every bobble ball we had. I think you can see that it had a different intensity.”
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:
“I'm very happy that the players understood the message that we were trying to get across. Today was an intense, frantic, back-and-forth day for a while, but if we made a mistake today… If we did that, I think we let the players do what we needed them to do.'' We said we were going to do that, and you can accept that.
“We got the ball up at the breakdown, kept the tempo of the game and kept it in their faces for most of the game. Yes, we made some mistakes and that cost them some tries. But our mistake was an execution mistake.”
Gloucester: Morris. May, Harris, Llewellyn, Thorley. Atkinson, Bernie. Ford Robinson, Blake, Gotovtsev, Clark, Clark, Ackerman, Clement, Mercer (c)
Replacement: Socino, Vivas, Knight, Thomas, Ludlow, Chapman, Inglefield, Hillman Cooper.
Exeter: John. Fay Waboso, Slade, Hawkins, Woodburn. Cairns, Skinner. Sio, Yandle, Street, Dunn, Jenkins (c), Roots, Vermeulen, Ficilau.
Replacement: Norrie, Southworth, Painter, Tziunza, Vincent, Armstrong, Haydenwood, Wimbush.
Referee: Christoph Ridley
