Exeter Chiefs secured their first Premiership victory of the season with a 34-28 win over Newcastle Falcons, despite a hat-trick from Christian Wade. Wade became only the second player in history to score 100 top-tier tries, with the visitors falling just short of a first away league win in almost four years.
Wade's milestone and Exeter's relief
The 35-year-old Wade, who retains a poacher's instinct, is now closing in on Chris Ashton's all-time Premiership career haul of 101 tries. Exeter were ultimately made safe by a late try from Georgian prop Bachuki Tchumbadze, while Italian international back-rower Ross Vintcent contributed two first-quarter tries.
The game, which featured nine tries, also saw a promising debut display from 18-year-old Jake Dalziel, the youngest player to represent Newcastle in the Premiership. England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso departed early with a tweaked hamstring.
“I don’t think it’s a catastrophe but he said he doesn’t feel right,” said Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby. “It’s more of a concern than a long-term worry.”
Attendance concerns and ticket prices
The meagre attendance of 7,071 on a grey but relatively mild afternoon was a concern. Exeter recently slashed ticket prices in most categories between now and Christmas, yet thousands of empty seats remained around the ground. For the first time in recent years for a league fixture, there was not a soul on the North Terrace behind the posts.
Just 8,682 showed up for Exeter’s opening weekend West Country derby against Gloucester, and here a stadium with a maximum capacity of 15,000 was more than half empty. The quality of the product matters but so, increasingly, does value for money in these difficult economic days.
Eventful contest and debutant shines
Those who did turn up were treated to an eventful tussle with five tries in the opening quarter alone. Vintcent collected two of them, the first inside 40 seconds after a chargedown with the help of a legal headed assist. Wade was also productively busy, running in an easy first and then unselfishly releasing Max Hicks for a second in the same right corner.
Henry Slade sliced through a big gap behind Werner Kok to score from 40 metres out, and also converted his own score from wide out, but it was still the visitors who led at the interval. Having lost Roots to the sin-bin for a no-arms tackle on Harrison Obatoyinbo, the Red Bulls had the youthful Dalziel pulling the strings, and the teenager’s beautiful offload outside to Sammy Arnold created the platform for Wade to accelerate away for his second.
After a stern half-time lecture from Baxter about their lack of defensive energy, Exeter appeared to revive slightly, and former Bath full-back Sam Harris, on his Chiefs Premiership debut, finished off a sharp blindside break from Stephen Varney. Two misjudgments from Slade then muddied the waters, a loose offload allowing Wade to pounce for a third time and a midfield forward pass causing a potential try for Varney to be scrubbed out by the television match official.
It required a fine long-range penalty into the wind with 16 minutes remaining by Slade to nudge the Chiefs back in front before Tchumbadze rumbled over from close range. Those who had paid to attend were suitably grateful, though whether this performance frightens their next opponents Toulouse, the French Top 14 champions, is another matter. The likely unavailability of Feyi-Waboso will make it an even tougher assignment, although Chiefs do now have their forceful Wallaby back-row forward Tom Hooper back for this weekend’s opening Champions Cup weekend.
