You would not have wanted to be part of the Bristol management team watching on.
As the game unfolded, the Bears were guilty of error upon error that cost them possession and territory. It was as if the Sandy Park bogey had its beady eye on them.
Gabriella Nigrelli, another of England’s young Under 20s hopefuls, did get them in front from a drive close to the line.
But across the first half the Chiefs’ pack proved the more dominant; they twice forced their way over, first by Emily Tuttosi, then by Rachel Johnson. Gaby Cantorna (50th club cap today) kept up the admirable record of the weekend’s kickers by converting both.
Half-time 14-7
Matters turned decidedly worse for the visitors as Johnson and Cantorna repeated their medicine just after the restart. Cantorna added a penalty to stretch the lead to 17 points.
Demi Swann, Chiefs’ recent signing, saw yellow for a hair-pull, but still Bears couldn’t take advantage.
Sarah Bern did manage one of her signature tries, but the errors, handicapped now by worsening weather, refused to disappear. 24-14 – and only 10 minutes left.
It was only right and proper that Chiefs added to their lead before the close: Alex Tessier made a telling break for the ball to finish in Claudia MacDonald’s hands over the line. So Bears lost out on three counts: the match, no try-scoring bonus, no losing bonus. On such narrow margins are trophies decided.
Final score: 29-14
Teams
Exeter
15 DOIDGE 14 MACDONALD 13 KOBAYASI 12 CANTORNA 11 BUCHANAN 10 TESSIER 9 BRADLEY 1 SWANN 2 TUTTOSI 3 MENIN 4 VAN DER VELDEN 5 LEITCH (captain) 6 JEFFERIES 7 ALLEN 8 JOHNSON
16 NIELSON 17 MIDDLEBROOKE 18 HANLON 19 FRYDAY 20 MILLAR-MILLS 21 FEAUNATI 22 McDONALD 23 CRAMER
Bristol
15 LOVIBOND 14 BONNER 13 MURRAY 12 M. SMITH 11 WILLS 10 AITCHISON 9 BURGESS 1 BOTTERMAN 2 ATKIN-DAVIES 3 BERN 4 BURNS 5 WARD (captain) 6 GALLAGHER 7 BUTCHERS 8 NIGRELLI
16 SKELDON 17 PAM 18 CLARKE 19 CUNNINGHAM 20 R. MARSTON-MULHEARN 21 BEVAN 22 VARLEY 23 HESKETH
Table
P W L Pts
Saracens 2 2 0 10
Exeter 2 2 0 10
Harlequins 2 1 1 6
Glos-Pury 1 1 0 5
Bears 2 1 1 5
Sale 2 1 1 5
Trailfinders 2 0 2 1
Lightning 1 0 1 0
This imbalance in the number of games played will remain throughout the season.
Afterthought
‘Don’t panic, don’t panic!’, the season is still young, but today’s result tips the final outcome against Bears. For those top four qualifying places the need is quite simple: avoid losses. Then any bonus points can make all the difference.
For Sale this was an important staging-post. For the league, it means more evening-out: one fewer of the leading lights an odds-on bet.
