Undisciplined Exeter throw away chance of Stade win

Stade Francais: (0) 27

Tries: Melikidze, Motassi, Penalty, Laloi Cons: Barre Pens: Barre

Exeter: (17) 25

Undisciplined Exeter threw away a 22-point lead as they lost at Stade Francais in the European Challenge Cup.

Paul Brown-Bampoe’s 15th-minute try and Scott Sio’s score in stoppage time at the end of the first half put Exeter 17-0 up at the break.

Sio got another soon after the restart to put Exeter 22-0 ahead, before Giorgi Melikidze replied soon after for Stade.

Thibaut Motassi’s try reduced the gap further as Exeter gave away penalty after penalty.

Greg Fisilau was sin-binned for bringing down a 63rd-minute maul, with replacement Lewis Pearson giving away a penalty try for a similar offence a minute later.

Down by two men, Charles Laloi’s try put the hosts ahead soon after, but Henry Slade’s drop goal from 35 metres with eight minutes left saw Exeter go a point in front despite being short-handed.

But Leo Barre’s penalty four minutes later, after another Exeter error, sealed the English side’s fate.

Exeter needed try-saving tackles from Ethan Roots and Slade inside the first 12 minutes, before going ahead three minutes later when Brown-Bampoe got on the end of a long Dafydd Jenkins pass to go over in the left corner.

It gave the Chiefs confidence and they began to threaten more, although both sides struggled to get into their opponents’ red zone as Slade added a penalty six minutes before the interval.

It took until stoppage time in the first half for either team to have any meaningful time in their opponent’s red zone – and Exeter made the most of it as Sio crashed over from close range following phase after phase of pressure on the Stade line.

Sio got a second close-range try five minutes after the restartm before Melikidze replied for the hosts from a similar range six minutes later after their first period of pressure on the Exeter line.

Exeter’s discipline began to ebb away under the increased pressure from the hosts, and following a five-metre lineout after a fourth successive penalty, Motassi sniped over from a metre out with 20 minutes to go.

Another lineout from a penalty saw Fisilau bring down a maul, and when Pearson did the same seconds later Exeter were reduced to 13 men and had a penalty try awarded against them.

Within three minutes they were behind, as Barre fed Joe Jonas, who put Laloi through in the right corner for Stade’s bonus-point try.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:

“It unwound in a weird kind of way. We got a scrum in opposition territory and we’re calling a forward pick and go straight off the scrum, but we’ve got all our eight forwards in the scrum, and it’s just one of those weird things when you go ‘Why are we doing it’ and then we get turned over at the first ruck.

“We get penalised at that, penalised at the next maul, a yellow card, and all of a sudden the whole momentum of the game has shifted.

“That’s something for us to go ‘What causes the first decision? What causes the next two decisions?’. Then all of a sudden we’ve got 13 men on the field and they’re coming right back at us.

“But what happens? We show the character to get back in the lead and it looks like we’re getting ourselves back in control, but then again we start doing something weird in our own half and we get punished.

Stade Francais: Jonas; Laloi, Marchant, Vili, Etien; Foursans-Bourdette, Motassi; Iscaro, Nicotera, Alo-Emile, Gabrillagues (capt), Turagacoke, Scelzo, Hirigoyen, Mapu

Replacements: Garcia Albo, Alo-Emile, Melikidze, Pesenti, Briatte, Delbouis, Abadie, Barre

Exeter: Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Rigg, Brown-Bampoe; Haydon-Wood, Chapman; Sio, Dweba, Tchumbadze, Jenkins (capt), Zambonin, Hooper, Roots, Fisilau.

Replacements: Yeandle, Goodrick-Clarke, Roots, Tuima, Pearson, James, Cairns, Coen.

Yellow card: Fisilau (64), Pearson (65)