In one noisy corner of the Recreation Ground, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Exeter’s non-playing squad were on their final warning from security for standing up at their seats. They were surrounded by men in high-vis vests as they were whipped into a frenzy of pure Prem drama.
Feyi-Waboso thumped his chest in a white T-shirt and led the stand on a Tomahawk chop, as his team-mates staged one of the greatest defensive stands ever seen. Bath supporters were losing patience – but not faith – as their heavyweights pounded through 40 phases in the final play.
The hosts were one pass away from victory. Henry Arundell waved his arms for the ball on one wing, Joe Cokanasiga was crying out for it on the other. But pressure can do funny things to sporting teams and, with their season on the line, they failed to execute.
The clock ticked into its 83rd minute but Bath’s forwards kept the ball up the jumper. Teams have carried out entire research projects on drop goals but Santi Carreras, Bath’s No 10, failed to set up the kick. The noise was so deafening that no touchline messages could have reached Finn Russell’s understudy.
Bath’s forwards did everything to twist and squeeze their way over. The pick-and-go has become their superstrength in attack and Exeter’s long-serving coach said it felt like a ‘creeping death’ as they pounded the line.
Throughout the week, Exeter’s players had been written off. Reminded that just six away teams have won the last 44 play-off semi-finals. Bath were dominated in the first-half, blowing Exeter’s scrum to smithereens and winning the aerial scraps as they charged to a 26-10 lead.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Exeter’s non-playing squad were the team’s biggest cheerleaders as they reached the PREM Rugby final
Rob Baxter fielded a similar group of players during Exeter’s 79-17 humiliation by Gloucester last year. The same core of players remain but his summer recruits – Tom Hooper, Len Ikitau, Stephen Varney and Andrea Zambonin – all stepped up.
At half-time, Baxter grabbed replacement Springbok hooker Joseph Dweba in the changing room and said to him: ‘You’re going on soon and I don’t want our scrum to go back. That’s what you’re here for, you’re here for days like today.’
Dweba got the message. Dweba, Ethan Burger and Bachuki Tchumbadze changed the narrative at the scrum. Exeter won six penalties to none in the second-half, as tries from Ben Hammersley, Greg Fisilau – playing with a fractured eye socket – and Burger set up a grand-stand finish.
Bath have won 77 per cent of their games with Finn Russell this season and lost 54 per cent without him. The outcome may have been different with their Scottish playmaker as their campaign fizzled out. They were in the running for a domestic and European double this season but ultimately they will finish with nothing.
Asked if he carried any regrets about his team’s execution in the final play, Bath coach Johann van Graan defended his team’s tactics.
‘Absolutely there were opportunities to move it but we decided to keep it tight and I back our players,’ said the coach. ‘It’s so easy as a coach to sit here as coach and say we should have done this and we should have done that. Santi was in the pocket. I’m not sure what the comms was at the time. Ultimately we didn’t use that last opportunity. That’s sport. We win together and we lose together.’
Exeter’s defenders knuckled down on their tryline. They created a forcefield that was forged during sickening fitness sessions on Exmouth beach last summer.
They have the best defensive record in the league this season and it showed, as they held on to reach their first play-off since 2021. ‘They’re the same players but they’re different men,’ said Baxter, reflecting back to last year’s humiliation by Gloucester.
Exeter will take on Northampton Saints in the final, who beat Leicester Tigers on Friday
‘If you’re not emotionally involved together, that game becomes 30, 40 points in the second half. These lads aren’t like that. They are emotionally tied together. It’s the biggest credit I can give them more than anything else.
‘I bet there were about six or seven times when they could have made two passes wide and scored at the end but they didn’t because they’re so good at converting. They have a super-strength there. Why would you run away from it and risk making the error? You might drop the ball or miss the drop goal. I don’t think they’ve done anything wrong there. It only feels wrong because they haven’t converted. That’s the tough part of rugby.’
Ultimately it was Ollie Woodburn and Henry Slade who held up Billy Sela’s final carry. The Rec was shellshocked. Thomas du Toit dropped to his knees on the halfway line and Joe Cokanasiga was in tears.
Feyi-Waboso, who had not been drinking, had a gin and tonic thrown in his face by a Bath supporter, who ended up with a ripped t-shirt. More significantly, it was Bath’s season that ended in tatters.
