Chiefs 46 Sharks 3
Exeter Chiefs 46
Sale Sharks 3
Mark Stevens at Sandy Park.
London's Calling once again for Exeter Chiefs after they cruised their way into the Premiership Rugby Cup Final with a resounding victory over Sale Sharks.
Whilst it won't be the Twickenham showpiece of recent years, this latest occasion will be just as important for the Devonians as they look to claim the first piece of major silverware this season.
Standing in their way will be London Irish - who on home soil - will be a tough nut to crack, especially as they look to go one better than last season, where Worcester Warriors pipped them at the same venue.
For now, the chat will all be about the Chiefs, whose supporters were once again given a glimpse into the future with the displays of a number of the club's Class of 2023.
In recent weeks, much has been made of the high-profile exits of senior stars here at the Chiefs come the end of the season. It will be sad, of course, when they do eventually departure. However, one door closing, another opens and Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, has made no secret of the fact he believes an exciting future lies just around the corner.
On this latest evidence, that wait may not be too long as the hosts produced an eye-catching display to advance past a Sharks outfit who, despite taking an early lead through a Tom Curtis penalty, played second fiddle for pretty much the remainder of the contest.
Exeter's young guns - aided by a sprinkling of senior stars - fired all the shots in this last four showdown. They ran in six tries in total through Santiago Grondona, Sean O’Brien, Rus Tuima, Tom Wyatt, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Dan Frost, but could easily have added more, such was their dominance both up front and behind.
Half-backs Tom Cairns and Iwan Jenkins, who finished the game with a personal haul of 16 points, were at the heart of much of Exeter's attacking enterprise, whilst up front all eight in the home pack could take a significant bow.
Up against a stiff breeze in the opening half, the Chiefs didn't quite get off to the best of starts, the Sharks opening their rivals up inside four minutes to create a scoring opportunity that was crudely thwarted by with a deliberate knock-on.
The home full-back was dispatched to the sidelines for a ten-minute stint, whilst Curtis stepped forward to drill over the resultant penalty and give his side an early lead.
Jenkins levelled matters within five minutes with a successful kick of his own, before the Chiefs stole in front midway through the first half with their opening try of the game. Having won a penalty deep inside the Sale 22, the hosts produced a clever move from a tap penalty to send Argentinian international Grondona over for the score.
Five minutes later and the Chiefs faithful had further reason to cheer. With a scrum just inside their own half on the left flank, swift hands from the Exeter back division sent Wyatt racing through the middle at speed. Although he was chopped down in his prime, he was able to offload to the onrushing O'Brien, who won't have got an easier ride to the line this season.
It was relentless stuff from the Chiefs, but they weren't done there, adding a third try shortly after through the impressive Tuima, who emerged from a mass of bodies to claim the acclaim from a well-constructed Exeter catch-and-drive line-out.
A shell-shocked Sale needed to regroup and with the half time whistle following not long after, it did at least allow them some momentary respite from what had been a brutal Exeter assault.
HALF TIME: EXETER CHIEFS 29 SALE SHARKS 3
Having had the chance to regroup somewhat during the interval, the Sharks - just as they had done earlier in the match - started on the front foot as the game kicked off in the second half. Early pressure saw them camp themselves deep behind enemy lines for the opening exchanges, but solid home defence would ultimately repel their threat.
At the other end, the Chiefs showed the Sharks how deadly they could be, adding the all-important fourth try on 49 minutes. Again, more sustained pressure from the hosts saw them push and probe, before the ball was worked out to man-of-the-match Wyatt, whose powerful leg drive, followed by an outstretched arm, saw him rewarded with the score.
Jenkins would rub further salt into the exposed Sale wounds with a second penalty, before both sides took the opportunity to empty their replacement benches. The change of personnel, as you'd expect, meant the flow of the game faded and the match itself went somewhat stop-start.
It would be the Chiefs, though, who would rekindle their fire in the final quarter, adding two late tries to put the seal on what was a polished performance from them.
Winger Feyi-Waboso grabbed the first of those two scores, a magnificent individual effort, that saw the former Wasps flyer shake off the attentions of four defenders to steal in under the sticks.
Then, replacement hooker Frost got in on the act, rounding things off by barging his way over from close-range as the Chiefs pack bludgeoned their counterparts into submission with a forceful final thrust.
Quite rightly, the Chiefs were afforded a standing ovation from those inside Sandy Park at the final whistle. Now, they just need to finish the job off with an equally impressive show in the nation's capital next month.
Chiefs: T Wyatt; I Feyi-Waboso, S O’Brien (F Cordero 57), T Hendrickson (I Whitten 63), R O’Loughlin; I Jenkins, T Cairns (O James 69); D Southworth (J Kenny 60), J Innard (capt, D Frost 50), P Schickerling (J Iosefa-Scott 60); M Williams (J Bailey 50), L Pearson (O Leatherbarrow 64); R Tuima, A Davis, S Grondona.
Tries - Grondona, O’Brien, Tuima, Wyatt, Feyi-Waboso, Frost; Conversions - I Jenkins (5); Penalties - I Jenkins (2)
Yellow Card: Wyatt
Sharks: J Woodward (K Wilkinson 61); B McGuigan, L James, S Hill, E Gourlay (J Bedlow 57); T Curtis, W Cliff (W Wootton 72); T Onasanya (B Carlile 54), T Taylor (H Thompson 26), C Oosthuizen (C Ford 54); R Birch, A Groves (E Murphy 63); W Riley, T Woodman (Y Nkonge 63), S Dugdale (capt).
Penalty - Curtis
Yellow Card: Cliff
Referee: H Smales
Attendance: 5,338