Exeter Chiefs Battle Back From Early Scare
Exeter Chiefs battled back from an early scare against Hartpury University to make it two wins from two in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
The Vertu Motors-backed side had kicked off their assault on the competition a week earlier with a comfortable win against Cornish Pirates but suffered an early scare at Sandy Park when the visitors went ahead early on thanks to a penalty from Harry Bazalgette.
The lead would last just two minutes before Exeter drew level thanks to Greg Fisilau, with Josh Hodge adding the extras with the boot before then going on to score a try of his own ten minutes later when he broke through the visitors defence.
With Fisilau adding his second score and Dan Frost then crashing over in the corner, Exeter took a comfortable 26-3 lead into the break having already secured a bonus point.
Within minutes of the second half getting underway, Fisilau completed his hat-trick when he downed the ball under the sticks to give Hodge an easy conversion with Hodge then adding his second moments before Rigg made it three tries is as many weeks.
The only blot on the Exeter copybook came when Josh Iosefa-Scott was sent to the sinbin with eight minutes left on the clock but even then there was still time for another Exeter score as Harvey Skinner ran in the eighth try of the afternoon.
Hodge’s conversion left the final score at 54-3 in favour of the home side who now have ten points from two games going into the away tie with Gloucester, who have also been victorious in their opening two matches in the competition.