The half-time statistics did not lie. Exeter enjoyed 92% of the possession and attempted 10 tackles to their opponents’ 169. Nine-tenths of possession allowed the Chiefs to lay down the law and they did so in the patient and efficient manner that has become their hallmark, taking play through several phases while taking very few liberties on the road to their third successive Premiership final.
The team who rarely make mistakes will face a side at Twickenham next Saturday that feeds off them, Saracens. Who will blink first in a contest between two clubs that are some way ahead of the rest in the Premiership?
For all their lack of possession in the opening 40 minutes, Newcastle tackled and kept their shape, but Exeter waited for their moment, fortified by the Falcons kicking what little ball they secured.
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Even Vereniki Goneva, who had been named as the player of the year at the Premiership’s awards dinner, resorted to the boot after intercepting on halfway, only to put the ball into touch on the full. When Chris Harris received a short pass from Toby Flood, he was so surprised he dropped it, and while Newcastle were more assured after the break, the game had gone.
It was Newcastle’s first appearance in the play-offs but the one-sided nature of the match owed less to their stage fright and more to a recent league record against the other sides in the top four this season that reads two victories and a draw in 40 matches. This was not a game they were used to winning and their ploy of using the wind to play for territory merely allowed Exeter to regain control of the ball and wait for a crack to emerge in the defensive wall. They sought contact unless a support runner was in sufficient space to justify an offload and did not succumb to temptation.
Exeter enjoyed a clear advantage of a largely thief-proof lineout and, up front, the prop Tomas Francis, who in the buildup to the game learned that his summer job had fallen through when he was withdrawn from the Wales squad after the Premiership’s refusal to release players for the out‑of‑window Test against South Africa on 2 June. He proceeded to take his anger out on his opposite number, Sam Lockwood.
The Chiefs steadily built a lead through the boot of Joe Simmonds, who kicked penalties after 14, 24 and 28 minutes, the third after the Newcastle second‑row Evan Olmstead knocked the ball out of the hands of the scrum-half, Nic White, at a ruck near Newcastle’s line and saw a yellow card. He was waiting to come back on to the field when Exeter scored the opening try after attacking from deep and scenting space.
Lachie Turner beat Harris on the outside, Dave Ewers kept the ball alive with a pass out of the back of his hand and, after Alec Hepburn had taken out defenders to create space on the left, White took advantage of defensive disorientation to dummy his way over.
If the 16-0 interval lead appeared scant given the one-sided statistics – 370 metres covered ball in hand compared with 10 was the starkest – Exeter’s habit is to exhaust opponents before going for the kill.
The Newcastle wing Sinoti Sinoti did not touch the ball in the opening half so when he received a pass a few minutes into the second period his relief was such that he refused to let it go and was penalised.
Newcastle had to move the ball more playing into the wind and saddled with a deficit, but they flapped their wings without taking off. Exeter kicked for position and two more Simmonds penalties in the third quarter in effect decided the outcome.
Newcastle’s director of rugby, Dean Richards, said before the match that his team were nowhere near where they needed to be and this semi-final brought his words to life.
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The Falcons scored a try through the replacement Alex Tait, who would have added a second minutes from the end, only to inexplicably drop the ball just before touching it down without a defender near him.
Exeter’s concentration does not lapse. Turner’s reaction to Tait’s try that, even with 24 minutes to go, looked no more than a consolation score, was to race off the line as Flood started his run-up for the conversion and charge down the ball.
It was an act that showed winning the Premiership title last season had not dimmed Exeter’s desire and they finished off with tries from Olly Woodburn and Don Armand, the second created by the departing No 8, Thomas Waldrom.
It was only two years ago that Exeter seemed to freeze against Saracens in their first final but they are unbeaten in the past three league meetings between the sides. Next Saturday at Twickenham will decide who is the first among equals.