Please get behind your team v Exeter

[Ellie]

Anyone at the end of season event tonight? An update from that would be appreciated.

[Ian Cant]

Great win and could have been a higher score line for us as in the first half we weren’t clinical enough.
Crowd today really turned up.OHC, Steward, JVP, Martin, Wells and Hanro immense effort as was Wilkinson’s when he came on: the covering back and one huge tackle meant the last 10 minutes could be managed very well and those who criticised Whiteley the other week I hope applauded him off today: his kicking was excellent with OHC ‘s chase superb.
And Jasper obviously saw the way Chris Ashton made sure he got a standing ovation and decided to do the same! I agree that the Exeter clearout that resulted in his red was poorly reffed!

[OakhamTiger32]

Just back home after a cracking afternoon at MWWR.. I haven't read the bulk of the posts so apologies if I am repeating what others have said but what a game, what an atmosphere and what a difference a week makes! If that is a small glimpse of what we can expect next season I think we are in for a treat.

The lads turned it up a notch today. I was a little worried when Freddie got done on the outside for their first try but after that the result was never in doubt imho. It was so good to see some real attacking intent albeit a little forced at times early on. We left a few scores out there today with some 'rabbit in the headlights' moments but we certainly played some good attacking rugby. A few little chips over the top worked nicely, some beautiful hands and pop passes, great kick chases by a few but most notably OHC and some huge hits! I was really pleased to see OHC back himself for his try, cracking finish. Some great performances today, good attacking intent and lots to look forward to next season.

Mr Dickson is one of the referees I am usually pleased to see on the whistle but I don't think he had his finest outing today. And before I get accused of blaming the officials, we won, so no I'm not. The better side won and it didn't affect the result. However, I thought Exeter got away with murder today. The breakdown was a real mess all game, scrum didn't look much better although I'm not a forward so perhaps that's my own lack of appreciation of the finer points of scrummaging! I believe it took 70 minutes for Exeter to give away their first penalty for offside! A blatant pull of the shirt late on missed, the clean out on Montoya (I think it was) that lead to Wiese's red card went unpenalised, their first yellow for the most cynical slap down you will ever see when we had players coming through the gap with momentum at pace who would would have walked over unopposed, yet no penalty try. I would have even backed Welford to get over the whitewash from there! It was so obvious there was no cover but just a yellow and a penalty. But hey ho. It didn't dampen the mood and the lads did us all proud today.

I did have flashbacks to the last home game with 12 minutes to go and a 19 point lead.. then the red card and it got a little quiet in the stands but to their credit the lads fought incredibly well for the full 80 and there was to be no repeat of that Bristol game.

I thought Wilkinson did incredibly well when he came on. Good kicking from the tee and ball in hand and great pace to get back and stop a certain try late on.. back up 10 sorted! Kata looked really up for it when he came on. I think the Kelly/Parese/Kata permutations next season will be great to watch.

All in all that was a cracker. Great game of rugby. We made a very hungry, very talented and well drilled Exeter team work extremely hard for every yard. I think with a full coaching compliment, a proper preseason with the bulk of the squad available, not to mention some nice new additions to the team (and I think we perhaps still need one or 2 more) I think we will be right back up there. For me the biggest concern now is discipline. We have to cut these cards out. 3 red cards in the last 4 games and countless yellows is unacceptable. Yes some were perhaps a little harsh but we have to improve in this area or we won't stand a chance next season.

Enjoyed that one today and look forward to more of that next season

[kk20gb30]

Something to smile about..a decent win.
The season has been a bit of an anti climax overall but every new dawn comes after the dark...

[Ellie]

Just back home after a cracking afternoon at MWWR.. I haven't read the bulk of the posts so apologies if I am repeating what others have said but what a game, what an atmosphere and what a difference a week makes! If that is a small glimpse of what we can expect next season I think we are in for a treat.

The lads turned it up a notch today. I was a little worried when Freddie got done on the outside for their first try but after that the result was never in doubt imho. It was so good to see some real attacking intent albeit a little forced at times early on. We left a few scores out there today with some 'rabbit in the headlights' moments but we certainly played some good attacking rugby. A few little chips over the top worked nicely, some beautiful hands and pop passes, great kick chases by a few but most notably OHC and some huge hits! I was really pleased to see OHC back himself for his try, cracking finish. Some great performances today, good attacking intent and lots to look forward to next season.

Mr Dickson is one of the referees I am usually pleased to see on the whistle but I don't think he had his finest outing today. And before I get accused of blaming the officials, we won, so no I'm not. The better side won and it didn't affect the result. However, I thought Exeter got away with murder today. The breakdown was a real mess all game, scrum didn't look much better although I'm not a forward so perhaps that's my own lack of appreciation of the finer points of scrummaging! I believe it took 70 minutes for Exeter to give away their first penalty for offside! A blatant pull of the shirt late on missed, the clean out on Montoya (I think it was) that lead to Wiese's red card went unpenalised, their first yellow for the most cynical slap down you will ever see when we had players coming through the gap with momentum at pace who would would have walked over unopposed, yet no penalty try. I would have even backed Welford to get over the whitewash from there! It was so obvious there was no cover but just a yellow and a penalty. But hey ho. It didn't dampen the mood and the lads did us all proud today.

I did have flashbacks to the last home game with 12 minutes to go and a 19 point lead.. then the red card and it got a little quiet in the stands but to their credit the lads fought incredibly well for the full 80 and there was to be no repeat of that Bristol game.

I thought Wilkinson did incredibly well when he came on. Good kicking from the tee and ball in hand and great pace to get back and stop a certain try late on.. back up 10 sorted! Kata looked really up for it when he came on. I think the Kelly/Parese/Kata permutations next season will be great to watch.

All in all that was a cracker. Great game of rugby. We made a very hungry, very talented and well drilled Exeter team work extremely hard for every yard. I think with a full coaching compliment, a proper preseason with the bulk of the squad available, not to mention some nice new additions to the team (and I think we perhaps still need one or 2 more) I think we will be right back up there. For me the biggest concern now is discipline. We have to cut these cards out. 3 red cards in the last 4 games and countless yellows is unacceptable. Yes some were perhaps a little harsh but we have to improve in this area or we won't stand a chance next season.

Enjoyed that one today and look forward to more of that next season

Unfortunately Wilkinson is leaving at end of season so won’t be our back up 10 sadly.

[LE18]

I really enjoyed that win today, still loads to work on next year, particularly ball skills/handling, got to cut out those dropped passes and also smarten up some of the quality of the passing, quite a lot of chuck it anywhere and that led to some difficult pickups which also slowed down our attacks.
Not to complain though, players tried their hardest today, some great chasing back and making last ditch tackles, although they generally followed us allowing their player to run through us, but credit where due, we stopped most at the last ditch.
Well done to all, good luck to our leavers and a bit of a shout for Van Wyk who most on here have critised but I think he has done quite a good job for us.
Enjoy the close season everyone and heres to our new found running game.

PS lets have an end of season atmosphere at every game next year, bring back Rock Bottom for every game and keep us all in the stadium buying our beers etc instead of chucking us out as soon as possible, its much better inside than out there and im sure it must be more economic.

[eastyorkstiger]

were definitely going to miss matt scott. seams a wise head and seams to gell the midfield well

[Greenwhiteandred]

JVP was prob the only subsistition i thought was poor call.

Maybe also Kelly also since he was having a great game, but I see why he would have Scott left on.

Cracknell for Reffell well I had issues with Cracknell on the bench more than anything else.

Reality is Montoya, Cole, Reffell, JVP and Martin are prob all going to be involved come summer so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a factor in some of it.

My problem more just who was on the bench

From the terrace thought JVP was blowing again - after pretty much a whole season out and our alleged S+C issues probably not surprising.

Cracknell was brilliant off the bench - not sure what game you were watching …. Won 2 turnovers in short order and hit rucks hard and chased hard ….. he’s not Tommy but did his his best impression of Tommy.

And I’d just like to take this opportunity that someone shows Dickson a photograph of a square so that’s he aware of a what a side is as Exeter No 20 clearly came round the side and not through the gate right in front of him and if he’d rightly penalized him Jasper wouldn’t have slam dunked him

[VernonAtrium]

Anything involving the head is a red flag and likely a red card, now. Particularly when it is so clearly seen on camera. But, anyway, THAT was a Tigers performance. Dunno what made the difference, must've been the crowd.

[mol2]

The ref let Exeter come in from the side at several rucks. But Wiese still can’t remove the player and drop him head first. Clear red and unnecessary but probably wouldn’t have happened if the ref had awarded an offside penalty or called advantage.

I still don’t understand why we were not awarded a penalty try. Yes it was over 20m out but they had no cover. The nearest player was at best parallel with Kelly and facing the wrong way so would have to turn before trying to chase him down.

[Darc Tiger]

I was mostly just happy the players looked like they really wanted to deliver a result. It felt like the players were just letting the season drain away, but credit to them for fronting up against a good Exeter side who had something to play for.

Means we can head into a rebuild knowing its not all so bad, if we can target improvements in the right areas. We're not THAT far off. The squad is capable.

I thought Wells and Martin were outstanding, and we actually looked dangerous with the ball. Really like the renewed purpose Steward is carrying with.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Last season we finished 4 wins behind 1st place.

This season we finished 3 wins behind 1st place.

Ok it's been a bad season, but the league has bunched up and small differences, Sale who yesterday morning were a long shot to be in the top 4 have the joint most wins of any team in the league.

We had a bad season, we have massive areas we can improve, not sure if the same can be said of the others in the league...

So the big question is can we put that improvement in practice...

[anz3001]

From where I was sat, I don’t think there was anything ‘new’ in yesterdays game other than a tangible air of determination from our boys. They were more up for it than I’ve seen all season.

[RagingBull]

JVP was prob the only subsistition i thought was poor call.

Maybe also Kelly also since he was having a great game, but I see why he would have Scott left on.

Cracknell for Reffell well I had issues with Cracknell on the bench more than anything else.

Reality is Montoya, Cole, Reffell, JVP and Martin are prob all going to be involved come summer so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a factor in some of it.

My problem more just who was on the bench

From the terrace thought JVP was blowing again - after pretty much a whole season out and our alleged S+C issues probably not surprising.

Cracknell was brilliant off the bench - not sure what game you were watching …. Won 2 turnovers in short order and hit rucks hard and chased hard ….. he’s not Tommy but did his his best impression of Tommy.

And I’d just like to take this opportunity that someone shows Dickson a photograph of a square so that’s he aware of a what a side is as Exeter No 20 clearly came round the side and not through the gate right in front of him and if he’d rightly penalized him Jasper wouldn’t have slam dunked him

My issue with cracknell selection pre game is I thought this season he didn’t do enough to not give Ilione a proper chance again.

He had a very good game today but I still doesn’t feel it changes my view that Ilione should’ve gotten a chance

[Rugbygramps]

I have only watched the highlights but it struck me the number of times Steward made ground coming into the line at pace, which is dependent, a lot, of having a ball playing 12 like Kelly.

I know Kata is becoming a fan favourite but imo he needs to be kept as a bench option, or wing, and develop Woodward as his understudy.
Hopefully a specialist attack coach will see this, and move McKellar on from one of his blind spots.