Hepher happy with win
By Mark Stevens
9/4/18
Ali Hepher believes Exeter Chiefs can still find another gear despite sealing a place in this season’s Aviva Premiership play-offs with a 46-10 victory over Gloucester at Sandy Park.
Hepher watched on with quiet satisfaction as the defending champions ran in six tries against the Cherry & Whites to stretch their lead at the top of the table to eight points with just three rounds of the scheduled season remaining.
Tries from Alec Hepburn, Sam Simmonds, Olly Woodburn, Gareth Steenson and a brace from the returning Jack Nowell proved the highlights for the Chiefs, whose remaining points came courtesy of the boot of fly-half Joe Simmonds.
Gloucester countered through a Callum Braley try, plus five points from Owen Williams, but that was small reward for them on a day when they struggled to contain the potent threat of their hosts.
Post-match, a delighted Hepher was quick to talk about his side’s display, saying: “As you approach any season your initial aim is to look and try and get into that top six, then you try and move that on to get into the top four, and then push for that home semi-final.
“It’s probably the most boring saying in the world, but we literally take it game to game. The pleasing thing from today is that we’ve ourselves up nicely with the amount of conditioning we have got into ourselves, because that was tough game, and we kept pushing until the end, which I know will help us in the latter stages of the season.”
In what was a bruising round 19 encounter, the Chiefs underlined their strength with a performance that augurs well for the final run-in of the season.
“That was a tough old game,” added the Exeter head coach. “If you go around the dressing room downstairs, our guys have written themselves off. Gloucester are a good side, they come at you with their aggressive linespeed, they are physical and look, they’ve come here having won in Ireland last week.
“We knew we have to pitch the flying, but we didn’t quite do that. The first 20 minutes were a bit passive and we were a little bit rusty, but that was perhaps understandable as that group have only played one game in a month. It was important we got through that period, which we did, then we went through the gears.
“As I said, don’t under-estimate what our guys have put in. We ask them to that week in, week out, and fair play to them they did that. There was no lack of effort from any of them and they showed their desire right until the end where they didn’t want to leak another try.”
The dazzling return of Nowell for the first time in six weeks was the talk of the terraces post-match, but so too was the display of team-mate Hepburn, who picked up the game’s man of the match with an outstanding performance.
“The thing about Heps is he is a quality player all ends up,” continued Hepher. “He can do things and make passes that normal props wouldn’t. He also gets around the park and he’s hungry to make an impact. He’s got work-ons, the same as any player, but the level of energy he puts into his rugby is impressive and he’s one hell of an asset to have in your side.”
Equally, the sight of Nowell helping himself to a double was another positive for Hepher to reflect on at the final whistle.
“It’s nice to see Jack back,” he said. “He’s obviously a quality player and he will perform better week on week. His finishes today were very good, but there are other bits of his game to look at. As coaches we can’t just look at the highlights, lots of people will from outside, but although we talk through them and look to reproduce them again in the future, we know there are bits he will naturally want to improve.
“For us, it’s good to get Jack back up and running because a fit Jack Nowell is a real asset to any side. You only have to look at that last try, there are not many in the country who can have scored that.”
The displays of both men - and other Chiefs for that matter - will not have gone unnoticed by watching England head coach Eddie Jones, who was among the capacity crowd at Sandy Park.