Exeter Chiefs assistant coach Ali Hepher has praised his 'hard working' side following their 22-17 victory over Newcastle on Saturday.
Assistant coach backs Exeter to cope with pressure
Exeter Chiefs assistant coach Ali Hepher has praised his 'hard working' side following their 22-17 victory over Newcastle on Saturday.
The win at Sandy Park made it two from three for the Aviva Premiership newcomers' after they beat Gloucester on the opening day of the season before giving Leicester a huge fright in defeat at Welford Road.
And Hepher is backing his players to cope with the pressure of a steep learning curve in their first season in the top flight.
"It was important that we battled through it," he said. "It wasn't the slickest of performances but you can see the character of the team coming through at the end.
"We have been emphasising to the guys all week the mental side of the game. We knew, game wise, we had enough to win the game but it would come down to the attitude of the team.
"I think that we just pulled through it but the guys have just got to get used to that pressure week in, week out.
"They are great guys, they work so hard, probably the hardest working group of players that I have seen.
Opportunities
"These guys are going in the right direction and we will learn masses from this game and take it through to next week."
Hepher admitted however, that he was a little disappointed they did not capitalise on all their opportunities to take maximum points from the match.
"We told the guys at half time to loosen-up and just play. At the end of the day we created a lot of opportunities and we have to work on our precision.
"If we had executed all the opportunities we created we'd probably have had a bonus point try at the end."
Fly-half Gareth Steenson, who contributed 17 points with the boot, came in for special praise from the assistant coach.
"He's the best kicker I've seen under the cosh," he added "He missed the posts with one but we'll work on that.
"He puts in so much hard work but it's important that the team perform around him. The team creates pressure, creating penalties and it's his job to knock them over."
Challenge
Hepher also revealed that as a result of the win, the Chiefs had earned themselves a day off ahead of their trip to Harlequins next weekend.
"They have had a hard few weeks," he continued. "So we said if they won they could have an extra day off on Monday to recover.
"We are on track but we need to back it up with another win next Saturday at Harlequins. It will be a massive up at Quins but we'll be looking forward to the challenge."
Falcons head coach Alan Tait felt that his side were penalised out of the game.
"It was just little things that changed the game like the penalty count, especially in the second half," he said.
"It was eight penalties to one after the break and most of them were for not rolling away.
"It has happened in both our away game so we'll need to look at ourselves and ask the referee for a bit of advice and see what they say.
"But it is probably the performance that was the most upsetting. We scored two tries but we can play better than that. Exeter ran a lot straighter and harder."
