Exeter Chiefs stun Sale Sharks with spectacular fightback to go top while Leicester Tigers ease to victory
Henry Slade kicked 12 points for Exeter Chiefs.
Exeter Chiefs completed a stunning comeback to beat Sale Sharks 27-26 at the CorpAcq Stadium in a triumph that moves them top of the PREM table on Friday night.
Trailing 26-6 with 54 minutes gone, somehow the Chiefs hauled themselves back into the game and eventually ran out winners to leave Sale stunned on their home turf.
Jack Yeandle, Olly Woodburn and Scott Sio grabbed their tries while Henry Slade slotted 12 points off the tee in what is Rob Baxter’s team’s fourth win from six games.
Luke James and Alex Wills were Sale‘s try scorers with George Ford kicking 16 points for the hosts, who had Tom Curry yellow carded early in the game for a high shot.
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There seemed an element of rust on show from both sides in the opening half as players returned from international duty and combinations needed bedding in once again.
After Slade compounded Curry’s yellow card on six minutes for a 3-0 lead, shortly afterwards Exeter were also cut to 14 men following Tom Hooper’s head-on-head shot.
Ford would level matters after that sin-binning and the England international star doubled his tally on 15 minutes, this after the Chiefs were pinged for not rolling away.
The back and forth of the game continued though when Slade made it six apiece off the tee, and this coincided with Sale losing Asher Opoku-Fordjour to an arm injury.
Ford would be on target again on 19 minutes as the Sharks retook the lead and they extended the cushion to 10 points six minutes later when James cut through to score.
Sale would add a further three points before the interval, this time for Exeter straying offside, and with Slade missing prior to that, the half-time scoreline sat at 19-6.
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The first score of the second period was always going to crucial in how the match played out and it was Sale that got it, Wills barging his way over for the converted try.
However, the 26-6 lead was eaten into by Exeter on 55 minutes when replacement Yeandle went over for a converted try which pulled them right back into the contest.
That seemed to ignite the away side and when Woodburn dived over on the left wing for a try that was expertly converted by Slade, suddenly the score was now at 26-20.
Incredibly the comeback was complete on 71 minutes when Sio reached out to hand Slade a shot to put his side in front, which he took before Exeter closed out the game.
Leicester see off Newcastle Red Bulls
Elsewhere, Leicester Tigers also picked up their fourth win of the PREM campaign as they ran out comfortable 39-17 winners over Newcastle Red Bulls at Kingston Park.
Leicester got the scoreboard ticking on six minutes with a long-range penalty from fly-half Billy Searle before the visitors repelled Newcastle in the subsequent phases.
The Tigers would then strengthen their advantage when lock James Thompson crashed over the whitewash on 13 minutes and with Searle’s kick the lead was up to 10.
But then the game turned when Ollie Hassell-Collins was sin-binned for a head shot on Ethan Grayson and four minutes later Brett Connon put Grayson over for a try.
That made it 10-7 to Tigers but there was a swift response from the visitors as back-row Joaquin Moro picked and went from 20 metres out. The extras made it 17-7.
Connon did cut that gap to seven with a penalty on 33 minutes which was how the half ended, with the two teams going into their respective changing rooms at 17-10.
Freddie Steward would be the first to trouble the scorers in the second period but it took until the 56th minute for that to come, the England international dotting down.
At 24-10 in front Tigers were in a solid position and that was only solidified when Searle sent over a penalty to go with his earlier conversion to make it a 27-10 cushion.
Moro would then add his second score on 72 minutes before Richard Palframan responded for the Red Bulls to make it 34-17 after Connon’s successful extras off the tee.
But fittingly Leicester would have the final say late on, Tommy Reffell getting over the whitewash to put the icing on the bonus-point success for Geoff Parling’s outfit.