Exeter 36 Pertemps Bees 0

Mar 3 2008

PERTEMPS Bees seemed slow off the mark and by the time they had regrouped Exeter had run in four tries and the match had vanished over the horizon.

Looking on the bright side none of Bees' relegation rivals managed to collect any points either so the Sharmans Cross Road outfit are no worse off than they were, but time is running out for their escape act.

Backs coach and fly-half Jon Higgins said: "We played all right but we gave away possession and switched off at the start of the second half and let them have three or four easy tries.

"It was 10-0 at half-time and we were doing all right. They only really scored again from our mistakes.

"We still did not do enough in attack to warrant scoring so it was a difficult day again against a good, powerful Exeter team. They were pretty useful.

"We never came close to breaking them down, they had a good defensive structure. We had some good performances but as a team we made too many mistakes again. We gifted tries and against a team like Exeter it is hard work."

The Chiefs led from a penalty by full-back Gary Kingdom and, with 24 minutes gone, fly-half Danny Gray went over and Kingdom added the extras.

Bees almost came back through centre Alex Grove, who won the race for the line from a ball kicked ahead, only to see it bounce awkwardly at the vital moment of touchdown ending with it being palmed dead.

With the second half barely started prop Craig Dunlea was driven over before three tries in seven minutes from centres Wade Kelly and Jason Luff, who scored two.

Kingdom kicked all three conversions and any hopes of an upset or even a losing bonus had gone.

New director of rugby Allan Lewis was not at the game as he still has commitments with his team at Hartpury College, but he will be studying the DVD ready for when he takes over full-time in a month or so.

EXETER: Kingdom, Luff, Fatiaiofa, Kelly, Drauniniu, Gray, Barrett, Kingsland, Blythe, Dunlea, Bentley, Hanks, Johnson, Miller, Baxter.

BEES: Spee, Vakacegu, Grove, D Knight, Mitchell, Higgins, P Knight, Reddinghuys, Pearl, Bucknall, Davidson, Kazombiaze, Matthews, Earnshaw, McComb.

Referee: Mr L A Roberts (RFU).