First half cost us - Steenson

By Mark Stevens
21/1/17

Gareth Steenson admitted that Exeter Chiefs paid the penalty for a poor first half in their European Champions Cup Cup defeat at Clermont Auvergne on Saturday.

The Chiefs showed an uncharacteristic lack of intensity and physicality in a first half to forget which saw them go in 34-0 down, with both Olly Woodburn and Ollie Devoto having taken trips to the sin-bin.

Exe did rally well after the break, scoring four tries to salvage a try bonus point and ensure they did not finish bottom of the group.

Dungannon-born Steenson praised the team's fight, but conceded that it was too little too late.

"It was a frustrating first 40 minutes. We didn't really show up and all of a sudden we had lost a couple of men and were under a lot of pressure," he said. "Fair play to Clermont, you can't show them the respect that we did and we put ourselves under a lot of pressure there.

"We talked about doing specific things but I think we went off-task at times. They have some real devastating guys but we just didn't do the things we talked about doing. Physically we weren't there. You have to chop these big guys down and we did it the previous week against a top European side in Ulster but not this time."

Exe may have gone in 34-0 down at half time, but they did at least outscore their hosts in the second period. By that stage though, Clermont had eased off safe in the knowledge that they had won the group and were guaranteed a home quarter-final.

Nevertheless, Steenson felt there were positives to be taken from the Chiefs' determined second-half display.

He said: "We talked at half-time about winning the second half because there wasn't a lot left in the game for us and we wanted to make sure we came out the other side better for the experience. The lads deserve credit. We were in a pretty hard place but came out and scored four good tries and it proves when we are on it we can do it against the best in Europe, but unfortunately it took us 40 minutes to do it."