It's not easy being Green (black and gold)

Wasn’t it fun to be back at The Gardens watching our boys give us collective high blood pressure?!

After a disappointing game at Bath we all assembled at the home of the Premiership champions (will I ever get tired of writing that?) to welcome Exeter whose hearts had been broken in the closing minutes of the week before by those pesky stripy ones from the roundabout.

Who would deal with the disappointment better; the young Exeter side, as TNT constantly refer to them, or Saints. I get slightly fed up with the “young Exeter” narrative so I turned to the abacus to work out the average age of the two sides. Over the match-day 23 Exeter’s average age was 25.3, compared to the elderly Saints whose average age was an astonishingly ancient 26.2. I don’t know how they could drag their aged limbs around the park for so long – but I digress....

The Gardens felt vibrant and upbeat in the village before the game with the wandering jazz band adding peripatetic background music as the crowds gathered.

And it seemed that the chipper atmosphere had rubbed off on the team as Saints tried to do Saintly things from the outset.

A couple of moves were snuffed out by forward passes but then the pack stepped up and a pop pass from the effervescent Curtis Langdon to Juarno Augustus saw the back row burst through the Exeter line.

He was brought down but lock Alex Coles was on hand to take the offload and collect Saints first try of the game.

Fin Smith was on target with the conversion and later safely slotted over three points after a high tackle on skipper George Furbank.

Both sides then displayed resilient defence as they each tried to open up the other. Great comedy moment came when there was a bit of a butchering of a scoring opportunity for Saints and the cameras caught Sam Vesty’s full-on reaction. You didn’t need to be a lip reader to understand his frustration!

A well earned penalty in the scrum from Big Trev saw Fin push the score out by another three points to 13.

Exeter are not a side to roll over, however, and just before the break they found a way through with the back Ollie Woodburn taking the spoils. Converted by Hodge.

Kudos to Saints front row as the Chiefs changed their entire front three at half time. This tactic appeared to work when they were given a penalty close to the halfway line which was slotted over by Hodge.

Chiefs might have been seen to have their tails up but a charge down by Chunya Munga gave the young second row a try scoring opportunity on his 50th premiership appearance – and one that he grabbed with both hands. Smith was his dependable self and Saints had a ten point lead.

Skill from skipper Furbs with beautifully weighted cross field kick saw Rory Hutchinson dive over the line in the corner. Smith was on target again and shortly after executed a lovely drop goal. And Saints looked secure with a 20 point lead and 20 minutes to go.

But this is Saints, why makes things easy for your supporters when you can push them to the edge of despair?Exeter began to pile on the pressure and the super-talented wing Feyi-Waboso was finally put over the whitewash. Hodge used the inside of the posts to help the ball safely over.

And then all the pressure was on Saints as wave after wave of Exeter attack was repelled. I felt we really came into our own as the 16th man in defence – the noise was awesome. Adam Leal then decided that there wasn’t enough jeopardy in the game and sent Hutch to the sin bin with four minutes to go for a high tackle.

Exeter were duly rewarded when they took a scrum and Feyi-Waboso made use of the space left by Hutch’s departure. Hodge converted and Chiefs were just six points behind.

A further penalty to Exeter gave them one last throw of the dice but eventually Saints were able to secure the ball, get the penalty and kick the blasted thing clear. Nerves might have been shredded but the win was ours and the Shoe Army song could be sung again! 

Photographs are provided by Claire Jones at RedHat Photography and if you would like to hear or see the Claire and Lis, plus guests, discussing all things Saintly hop over to Ladies Wot Pod on Youtube or Spotify. And for more discussions of Saintly things there's always: SaintsSinners on Facebook.

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