Gloucester thrash Exeter with 13 tries in record-breaking win

Gallagher Premiership

Gloucester (43) 79

Cons: Carreras 6, Anscombe, Williams, Ford-Robinson, Wade, Singleton, 3 Tries: Clement, Blake, Ludlow, Harris, S. Atkinson 2, Ludlow, Harris, S. Atkinson,

Exeter (7) 17

Gloucester moved up to fifth place in the Premiership with a club-record 13 tries in a win over Exeter.

With seven first-half tries scored at 43-7 at the break and earning a bonus point inside the 20 minutes, the Cherry and Whites completely outperformed their opponents.

Within 10 minutes of Exeter becoming embarrassed, Jamal Ford-Robinson and Christian Wade increased the try total to nine.

The hosts recorded their first Premiership victory, overtaking a 64-0 victory over Bath three years ago, by scoring four more tries before Jack Singleton scored a hat-trick.

Exeter’s top flight loss was its heaviest, surpassing its 55-12 defeat to Sale 14 years ago.

After Bordeaux broke their record in European competition with a score of 69-17, Rob Baxter’s side’s team lost to their own team for the second time this season.

Exeter were a shadow of that team as the hosts repeatedly cut through them as they had been buoyed by a disappointing defeat last week at league leaders Bath.

After Gareth Anscombe had freed Santi Carreras, Jack Clement was forced over from a five-meter lineout in the sixth minute.

Eight minutes later, Gloucester’s pack drilled into the 22 and forced Seb Blake to cross from the resultant close-range lineout, which was the result of Exeter’s maul defense.

After the first two tries, the backs’ fine passing set the tone for the next two. After Tomos Williams, Christian Wade, and Ruan Ackermann connected to set up the Scotland center, Lewis Ludlam beat Ben Hammersley with a fine passing move to force a grubber kick for the third.

After 26 minutes, Exeter’s defense struggled, and it was only then that Seb Atkinson strode through a massive gap 22 meters out to score the fifth try for Anscombe.

Exeter’s chances of entering Gloucester’s red zone were limited to 32 minutes when Paul Brown-Bampoe almost equaled theirs before losing the ball, but Josh Hodge at least got his team started scoring from 22 meters in the second half.

However, Exeter’s defense faltered once more as a result of Williams’ lovely looping pass, which the Welsh scrum-half completed with just before half-time for the seventh try.

Five minutes into the second period, Exeter made five changes, but Wade made a minute more difficult when he was stopped just outside the Exeter line, only for Ford-Robinson to score down from an inch or two out a few minutes later.

When Carreras collected his chipped kick for his 90th try of the season, Wade pushed closer to breaking the Premiership try record, and Atkinson scored his second try just as Brown-Bampoe had already squandered it for his second.

The former European champions’ 11th try was broken off by Singleton for the second half’s 18th try, and Gloucester’s 70-point conversion dotted down in the corner five minutes later as the match progressed to a Premiership championship tie.

When Exeter did mistakenly believe they had scored a try, a forward pass was blocked, and Hodge was denied shortly after Singleton’s second score, with Will Haydon-Wood sin-binned for a tackle off the ball moments later.

George Skivington, Gloucester’s head coach, told BBC Radio Gloucester:

“It’s undoubtedly a good day for us,” he said. The good balance of the tries is what made it most pleasing to me.

We felt that our game wasn’t quite in line with our previous couple of weeks away from home.

“But I thought today the boys attacked very well and successfully used the scrum and the maul,” he continued.

We must have the balance of the game in order to compete, even though we’re a really good attacking team.

Rob Hunter, the head coach for Exeter, told BBC Radio Devon: “

That is my lowest point in my many years coaching.

You can’t put any gloss on that, they say. That’s a lot of work, and at this point, it’s a real kick in the teeth.

Nothing really held up and we lost momentum in that game, and we didn’t even have a foothold in it.

You must take responsibility for what happens when you put on the shirt, which will be our first point of contact, and we must then attempt to talk through the whys and hows.

Replacements: Singleton, Ford-Robinson, Gotovtsev, Jordan, Clarke, Englefield, C Atkinson, and Cotgreave.

Hodge, Hammersley, Slade, Hawkins, Brown-Bampoe, Skinner, Armstrong, Sio, Yeandle, Street, Tuima, Jenkins (capt), E Roots, Vintcent, Fisilau, and others are in Exeter.

Replacements: Norey, Blose, Iosefa-Scott, Capstick, Vermeulen, Townsend, Haydon-Wood, and Rigg

Haydon-Wood 68 Yellow Card