Aviva Premiership: Exeter coach Ali Hepher pleased by win over Irish
Saturday 11 October 2014 18:53, UK
Exeter backs coach Ali Hepher was full of praise for his side after seeing them hammer London Irish 44-24 and claim a bonus point at Sandy Park.
Experienced lock Damian Welch claimed two tries with youngsters such as Henry Slade, Sam Hill and Dave Ewers making impressive contributions - and Hepher was delighted to see his men climb to third in the Aviva Premiership.
"Our mental approach and preparation for the game was excellent and they have turned it round very quickly in a week," he said.
"If that is what we learnt last week, then that's great because there were a lot of positives out there.
"Every man stood up and got themselves in the right frame of mind and we know that we are capable of beating a lot of sides if we do that. It was pleasing to get the bonus point because we have been on three tries for the past two weeks.
"That has been a little frustrating because we always want to target as many points as we can get - and we took advantage of that. We applied pressure in the second half and didn't give them a sniff back into the game until the final 10 minutes."
London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith added: "Fair play to Exeter because they are a very good team and they played the conditions brilliantly. They have an outstanding defence and we weren't at the office in the first half defensively - that is disappointing.
"It was a disappointing changing room after the game; the captain is unhappy and I'm unhappy but we will have to look at the tape of the game. Last night we had two boys go down with viral type stuff and by kick off we had five blokes down."
