Chiefs do a job on lacklustre Red Bulls

After the encouragement of last week's performance at Northampton it was a disappointing night for Newcastle Red Bulls who lost 14-38 against an Exeter Chiefs side who were thoroughly deserving of their victory.

Comfortable for Exeter, far too comfortable

Exeter found gaps in the Red Bulls defence all too easily to score their tries. The threat that the Exeter back three could cause was well known and the first couple of tries were used by them playing with width. For the first they crashed up the middle and the Red Bulls defence failed to re-load and Paul Brown-Bampoe strolled in. The second found its way to Campbell Ridl on the left touchline and he went over, Red Bulls defenders were being sucked in and Exeter were finding space and some generous wide defence.

After fifteen minutes it was 0-17, Exeter used their maul to great effect and the Red Bulls defence failed to reload and Brown-Bampoe won't have too many easier finishes. The Exeter bonus point came on twenty five minutes when Olly Woodburn raced through a gap and Elliott Obatoyinbo's attempted touch tackle to score, Skinner converted and it was 0-24 and it really was as bad as the scoreline suggested.

Left to Wade

The story of the night from a Red Bulls attacking point of view until much later in the game was to give it to Christian Wade and see what he can produce. On thirty one minutes the Kingston Park faithful were repaid as Wade took the ball on the right and beat two defenders to finish superbly, Connon converted and the score was now 7-24. The problem was for the majority of the game Red Bulls looked to Wade as a sole attacking threat. The problem being Exeter's well drilled defence read what was happening and snuffed him out. That included an attacking scrum in the second half where Wade looked like he had a one on one but when the ball got to him from the scrum three Exeter defenders had read the play and saw out the danger.

There was a complete contrast to what we saw at Northampton last week where Red Bulls played with freedom. The majority of the time tonight it looked as though they ran out of ideas in attack and either forced a play that wasn't on or they knocked on. The final try of the half saw Ridl wriggle through two defenders to score and at half time it was 7-31.

Second half improvement

Although the second half started terribly for Red Bulls with Stephen Varney scoring a training ground move that was far too easy, Skinner converted and it was 7-38, Red Bulls did improve in the second half.

In truth though it was a mistake ridden half of rugby with no real flow. Exeter knew the game was won and although Red Bulls had a lot of possession they failed to do much with it. Will Rigg had Rhys Beeckmans card marked as Beeckmans was tasked with creating the go forward in the Red Bulls backline. In truth it wasn't just Beeckmans who struggled against a disciplined Exeter defence, Red Bulls couldn't get any real go forward.

Red Bulls on the attack in the second half.

There was some bright play, Oli Spencer looked lively off the bench and Murray McCallum kept the scrum strong. Unfortunately though it felt like Exeter were the home team as they produced an assured performance which Red Bulls couldn't match.

The final try of the game came in the last play when prop turned second row Connor Hancock went over and Ben Healy converted.

Disappointment

As I've said after last week there was hope that Red Bulls could win this one. Instead, credit must be given to an Exeter side who turned up with physicality and did a job. Stephen Varney, Harvey Skinner and Will Rigg controlled the game and the Chiefs forwards set the platform. Especially in the first half they attacked with intent getting quick ball to their speedsters out wide.

Red Bulls will be concerned about the shoulder injury that forced Oscar Usher off the pitch as they re-group to take on La Rochelle next weekend. There was so much promise in the performance against Northampton but they just didn't deliver that this evening it was like the clocks had gone back to last season at times.

Re-group and go again

Ultimately Red Bulls have to re-group and go again, La Rochelle are in town and they can't be as flat as it seemed they were tonight. French teams don't tend to travel well and they may rest some players but if they're as passive in defence as they were tonight it could be a long night next Saturday.

But Red Bulls are better than what they showed tonight and if they are on their metal then they could reach the quarter finals.