Happy Hunter savours Saints win
By Mark Stevens
24/12/17
Rob Hunter insists Exeter Chiefs will continue their quest to raise standards despite moving 11 points clear at the top of the Aviva Premiership following their 35-14 win at Northampton Saints.
The reigning English champions heaped further misery on the Saints by collecting maximum reward from their trip to Franklin’s Gardens.
Will Chudley bagged a brilliant first half score on his first league start of the season, before forwards Sam Simmonds, Thomas Waldrom and Jack Yeandle got in on the act in the second half. Skipper Gareth Steenson and replacement Joe Simmonds completed the job for the Chiefs.
In reply, Ahsee Tuala and Cobus Reinach claimed converted tries for the Midlanders, but it was scant reward on a day when they were comprehensively second best in the on-field battle.
Post-match, forwards coach Hunter was quick to praise the contribution of his team at a venue where, until this result, they had won only once in the top flight before.
“We’ve still got a game to go this year, so a good end would be beating Leicester at home next week, but for now it gives us a good Christmas,” said Hunter. “It’s pleasing to be where we are at and we’re playing well. As I said, to get a win at a place where we’ve not performed too well in the past, and to get the bonus point, albeit a little bit shakily at the end, was very pleasing.”
Hunter heralded the mind-set and composure of the Chiefs, particularly during the second half, where they cranked up the gears and were able to make their superiority pay dividends.
“We have real high standards within the camp and a lot of what we talk about is our own quality and our own standards,” added Hunter. “Once we got into the position where the bonus point was possible, yes we did concede a soft try and mentally we did have a little slip, but we got straight back on it.
“The lads pulled together, they got the penalties, and we did the right things to get into the corner and get ourselves over the line. Right now there is a real hunger and voraciousness as you put it within the squad. The competition internally is very high and that is where it needs to be to keep our standards high.”
For the Chiefs, Saturday’s success was the perfect remedy after suffering back-to-back losses at the hands of Leinster in the European Champions Cup.
Hunter, himself a former Saints player, continued: “It was really pleasing to perform well off the back of two losses. It’s been a while since we lost two on the bounce, but the thing with the Leinster game is that we learnt a lot as a group between the first and second game. We turned a few things round and we performed much better in the second game.
“For us, it’s learning those lessons and transferring them back into the Premiership. I think we will be a good side in Europe moving forward, and there is still plenty to play for when we go back into that competition, but we’ve always been a good learning side.
“Although we’ve established a good gap at the top of the table, it’s important that we continue to learn and don’t sit back and think everything is rosy.”
Exeter demonstrated during the second half the ruthless mind-set that now exists within the Chiefs camp – and Hunter was quick to praise the efforts of the visiting pack.
“We choked them up front a little bit and the lads really did their homework,” continued Hunter. “Sam Skinner calling the line-out I thought was outstanding. Last year he was playing at Exeter University, so this was a big game for him to call.
“Northampton are one of the best teams in the league in terms of line-out defence, so I was really pleased for him. Also, the guys coming on added some impact off the bench and allowed us to really take a grip of the game.”
Alongside Skinner, there were also notable displays from the likes of Luke Cowan-Dickie and Dave Ewers, the latter of whom was making his first league start since April.
“It’s been a tough period for Dave, but he is getting back to his best level of fitness. It’s been a rough couple of years for him, but you can see he just enjoys being out there with his mates, so we’re not going to load too much pressure on him at this stage.
“We’re pleased with how he has gone today and what he brings to the team, not just in terms of his physicality and his carrying, but also the work he does in the tight, is just fantastic. It’s nice as forwards coach to have some beef like that to roll back in.”