Exeter smash La Rochelle
CHAMPIONS CUP REPORT: A clinical display of attacking rugby from Exeter Chiefs was enough to secure them all five points on the road against La Rochelle after a comfortable 31-12 win in Champions Cup Pool Two.
Bruising forward play was the order of the day for Exeter early on and the ball reached Dave Dennis who burrowed his way over, with Joe Simmonds slotting over the simple conversion.
Handling errors proved costly for La Rochelle in the first half and it was a stray pass that went beyond their own tryline that gave Exeter an attacking platform.
From that scrum, Exeter worked it wide and after a terrific pass wide from Simmonds, Tom O’Flaherty was able to step inside his man and powered over the line in the corner with a stunning finish.
La Rochelle threatened a comeback at the start of the second half after some vintage play from the French side who worked the hands brilliantly as Arthur Retière found Geoffrey Doumayrou to dive over the tryline.
That was as good as it got for La Rochelle who were building pressure before a stray pass allowed Henry Slade to break the line and grab possession before sprinting away for a third Exeter try.
A fourth soon followed as with penalty advantage, Sam Simmonds showed all his strength to hold off the La Rochelle tackles on 62 minutes and powered his way over for the bonus point try.
The English side added another three points in the final six minutes before La Rochelle did bag a consolation try from Kini Murimurivalu in the final play of the match.
Exeter will look to make it two mins from as many matches next weekend when they take on Glasgow Warriors at Sandy Park while La Rochelle travel to face Sale Sharks.
The scorers:
For La Rochelle:
Tries: Doumayrou, Murimurivalu
Con: James
For Exeter Chiefs:
Tries: Dennis, O’Flaherty, Slade, S Simmonds
Cons: J Simmonds 4
Pen: J Simmonds
Teams:
La Rochelle: 15 Jérémy Sinzelle, 14 Vincent Rattez, 13 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 12 Levani Botia, 11 Arthur Retiere, 10 Ihaia West, 9 Alexi Bales, 8 Victor Vito (captain), 7 Wiaan Liebenberg, 6 Grégory Alldritt, 5 Mathieu Tanguy, 4 Romain Sazy, 3 Arthur Joly, 2 Pierre Bourgarit, 1 Dany Priso
Replacements: 16 Facundo Bosch, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sila Puafisi, 19 Lopeti Timani, 20 Kevin Gourdon, 21 Brock James, 22 Marc Andreu, 23 Kini Murimurivalu
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tom O’Flaherty, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ian Whitten, 11 Alex Cuthbert, 10 Joe Simmonds, 9 Nic White, 8 Sam Simmonds, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Dave Dennis, 3 Harry Williams, 2 Jack Yeandle (captain), 1 Alec Hepburn
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Marcus Street, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Don Armand, 21 Jack Maunder, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Jack Nowell
Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Sam Grove-White (Scotland), David Sutherland (Scotland)
TMO: Neil Paterson (Scotland)
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