Exeter 20-19 Sale: 14-man Chiefs secure semi-final advantage

EXETER booked their sixth Premiership home play-off on the trot but the reigning champions had to dig deep against a Sale side who threw down the gauntlet early on and were nearly rewarded for their audacity.

Alex Sanderson’s team will return to Sandy Park on Saturday for what should be a thunderous semi-final but both sides will be counting the cost of this spicey hors d’ouvre.

Chiefs lock Sam Skinner will definitely be missing after a second-half red card, and Dave Ewers might yet be held to account for a similar shoulder to the head in the first half when he escaped with a yellow.

Teak tough South African flanker Jannes Kirsten also copped an injury which forced him off before the break.

Meanwhile Sale’s brilliant ringmaster AJ MacGinty was stretchered off in the 79th minutes with a serious looking knee injury while livewire hooker Acker van der Merwe was helped off in the first half with a nasty looking ankle injury.

It took the visitors less than two minutes to get off the mark as they moved Chiefs from right to left – with a crossfield kick from MacGinty – and then back to the right touchline with a fizzing long pass from the American Eagles’ outsidehalf putting Byron McGuigan over for a try.

Joe Simmonds hit back with a penalty but it was Sale who continued to dominate proceedings up to half-time with the Chiefs rarely getting into Sale territory. And even when they did Tom Curry lay in wait to turn them over.

Sale increased their lead through the excellent McGinty who, recognising Sale were playing an advantage, took his time moving across field – perhaps looking for Manu Tuilagi on the crash? – when he straightened and accelerated to score under the posts.

The damage could have been worse for the Chiefs at the break. In the 33rd minute Dave Ewers –a tough man but the possessor of an excellent disciplinary record – just got it plain wrong as he recklessly went to tackle Simon Hammersley way too high. The point of his shoulder made contact with the full-back’s head and it was an obvious red.

The referee, Karl Dickson, however came up with the theory that because Hammersley had been spun round in the tackle it was yellow not red, which frankly simply meant that Hammersley got twatted on a different part of the head. The citing officer might yet revisit this challenge.

After the break it was still all Sale for the first 20 minutes or so and another superb MacGinty chip made a try for Arron Reed but the tide turned.

First the dismissal of Skinner with 26 minutes remaining – for a hit on South Africa scrum-half Faf de Klerk‘s head with his shoulder – fired up the Chiefs while the arrival of Stuart Townsend at scrum-half immediately upped the tempo. Thereafter you sensed Sale might do well to hang on.

Luke Cowan Dickie – Chiefs’ best forward with Jonny Hill – started the fightback with a converted try and then, with Sale down to 14 after a yellow card to Ben Curry, that man Townsend touched down with a quarter-back’s sneak.

It was left to Joe Simmonds to smash over what proved to be the winning penalty from 43 metres as the Chiefs fans roared them home. If Saturday’s semi-final is half as good it will be a classic.

Exeter …………….20pts 

Tries: Cowan-Dickie 59, Townsend 65

Conversions: J Simmonds 60, 66

Penalties: Simmonds 6, 71

Sale ………………..19pts

Tries: McGuigan 2, MacGinty 21, Reed 42

Conversions: MacGinty 2, 22