Ospreys vs Exeter Chiefs match report: Ospreys prevail after Exeter’s heads go elsewhere

Osprey's 25 Exeter 13

Josh Matavesi races through to score for Ospreys (Reuters)

There has never been much to be said for Sunday rugby – frankly, all right-thinking union folk should spend their Sabbaths in church or in the pub, whichever is the nearer – and when two off-colour sides meet on a wet, windy evening in Swansea, there is nothing to be said for it at all. Ospreys won their European Champions Cup opener with a little to spare, thereby halting the spectacular progress of the English contingent over the previous 40-odd hours, with a performance best described as... unspectacular. By logical extension, their opponents were not nearly that good.

So ended a testing weekend for the newly-constructed European club rugby directorate, doing their best to get things done over there in their far-flung Swiss canton. It started embarrassingly with a set of weak team selections by a number of clubs competing in the second-tier Challenge Cup competition – the clearest possible indication of the regard in which that tournament continues to be held – and grew immeasurably and harrowingly worse following the murderous events in Paris and the consequent shutdown of public events throughout France.

This final match of a badly disrupted first round started with a minute’s silence in honour of those who lost their lives on the far side of the Channel and continued in the same vein: quietly and almost apologetically, as if no one felt quite right playing rugby in the face of more serious concerns. The players were all of a fidget, the fumbles duly followed – the faux pas count was off the scale – and whatever spirit there was in the stadium before kick-off fell flat long before the initial exchanges were done and dusted.

Rob Baxter, the Exeter head coach and one of those routinely mentioned in discussions about the vacant England job, volunteered the thought afterwards that his players were lacking in “energy and enjoyment” from the off and seemed unusually reluctant to “get stuck into the contest”. But he did not seek for a second to put this down to outside influences or extraneous matters. Instead, he confessed to being frustrated at his charges’ failure to take a grip on proceedings.

“We had a long lead-in to a game that was a first chance to step up to a level beyond Premiership rugby,” he said.”It turns out that we were well prepared everywhere except in the top six inches. We weren’t under any pressure from the clock or the scoreboard, yet we played as though we were and we got knocked out of our stride a little too easily for my liking. Ospreys seemed more comfortable with the evening all round and we looked a little immature by comparison. It’s disappointing, because I thought that as a side, we were further on than that.”

As per usual, Baxter’s assessment was spot on. The Devonians were points up in the first half, largely through a no-nonsense finish down the left from the wing James Short, who proved a little more muscular and stronger in contact than his would-be tacklers, the No 8 James King and the outside-half Dan Biggar, imagined he might be. Yet even though the Ospreys were all over the place in a majority of disciplines and were finding the Exeter forwards Luke Cowan-Dickie and Dave Ewers particularly difficult to contain, there was never the slightest suggestion of them disappearing from view.

And when the contest shifted towards the home side at the start of the second half, it kept moving in the same direction until Josh Matavesi, a World Cup centre with Fiji earlier in the autumn, nailed the win by intercepting a Ewers-bound pass from Gareth Steenson and making it all the way to the line despite the close attentions of the England back Jack Nowell. Biggar converted to complete the scoring and deny Exeter even a puncher’s chance of pinching a losing bonus that might have made the bus ride home a little easier to bear.

That Biggar should have had the final say was only right and proper, for he was the outstanding player on view – every bit as eye-catching, indeed, as he had been in the red shirt of Wales during the recent global gathering. There may have been a hit-and-miss air about his marksmanship here, but he still bagged 17 points from the tee and added a very decent drop goal for good measure. In all other respects, he underlined his new-found and hard-won status as one of the sport’s leading No 10s.

When it comes to the aerial game, he may well be the best of the best, Daniel Carter or no Daniel Carter. Time and again here, he sent a punt spiralling miles above the Mumbles and met it on its descent with perfect timing and the kind of hand-eye co-ordination that would make a Test cricketer blink in disbelief. The likes of Nowell are no mugs when it comes to this increasingly important aspect of professional union, but Biggar proved untouchable on this occasion.

If there were times when the visitors felt harshly treated by the Italian referee Marius Mitrea, it was hard not to sympathise with them. In one passage of play that would have appealed to Keystone Kops enthusiasts everywhere, Mitrea penalised Cowan-Dickie for failing to release the ball in contact at the precise point when no Ospreys hand was upon his person, and missed a pass from Brendon Leonard to Justin Tipuric that was so far forward, it might have been thrown by Dan Marino.

But all things considered, Mitrea was the least of Exeter’s problems. They had crossed the Severn Bridge in confident mood, having served up some hot stuff in the Premiership, but Ospreys knew a little too much for them when the important questions were being asked. This should give Baxter and his advisors cause for concern: they face back-to-back meetings with Clermont Auvergne before Christmas, and Clermont know everything there is to know about big European games and how to win them. Suddenly, Exeter find themselves on a very long road.

Scorers

Ospreys – Try Matavesi; Conversion Biggar; Penalties Biggar 5; Drop goal Biggar. Exeter – Try Short; Conversion Steenson; Penalties Steenson 2.

Teams

Ospreys: D Evans; E Walker, J Spratt, J Matavesi (B John 74), D Howells (S Davies 79); D Biggar, B Leonard (T Habberfield 79); P James (R Bevington 73), S Baldwin (S Parry 66), D Arhip (A Jarvis h-t), L Ashley, A W Jones (capt), D Lydiate, J Tipruic, J King (D Baker 79).

Exeter: J Nowell; M Jess (I Whitten 49), H Slade, S Hill, J Short; G Steenson (capt, M Campagnaro 73), W Chudley (D Lewis 73); A Hepburn (C Rimmer 66), L Cowan-Dickie (J Yeandle 54), T Francis (M Low 66), M Lees (O Atkins 73), D Welch, D Ewers, J Salvi, D Armand (T Johnson 58).

Referee: M Mitrea (Italy).