Exeter Chiefs struggle in the rain in defeat to Ospreys despite another Paul Brown-Bampoe try
Rising star Paul Brown-Bampoe scored his fourth try in two games but Exeter Chiefs struggled to ignite in the wet, suffering a 14-10 home defeat to Ospreys in their second weekend of pre-season action.
A strong Chiefs side showed plenty of physicality and intent throughout but their inability to hold onto the wet ball for multiple phases fatally blunted their attacking game. Exeter opened the scoring with a Josh Hodge penalty in the 16th minute but their lead was short-lived with Ospreys hitting back just three minutes later.
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The Welsh side spotted an overlap on down the blindside and worked the ball through the hands, evading an explosive tackle from Paul Brown-Bampoe who shot out the line too fast, to get the pill into the hands of winger Ryan Conbeer who accelerated down the tramlines before rounding under the posts to make it an easy conversion kick for Ryan Edwards.
Exeter re-took the lead five minutes into the second half with a slice of luck. Harvey Skinner launched a cross-field kick that looked to be heading into the grasps of Luke Morgan, but Brown-Bampoe went up to compete and did just enough to disrupt the Ospreys winger who fumbled the ball and it fell into the Exeter flyer's path. Brown-Bampoe, who had been a spectator in the first half bar for a couple of good kick chases, gathered up the loose ball and raced in untouched from 15m out, finishing with a dive for the fans in the South Stand. Hodge added the easy conversion to make it 10-7 with 35 minutes to play.
But it proved to be the Ospreys who finished the stronger of the two sides with Exeter wasting opportunities to get the scoreboard ticking having worked hard to get into promising field positions.
In the final moments, the Welsh region broke from deep to get to within striking distance of the Chiefs’ try line. The home side put in a heroic effort to keep the men of Swansea at bay for more than a dozen phases and looked to have seen out the danger as they forced a knock-on. However, with mere seconds on the clock, Chiefs hit self-destruct as young Academy player Finn Worley-Brady failed to control the ball at the back of the scrum, with Tom Cairns getting suspiciously held in, and the ball squirted out the back of the set-piece and into opposition hands with Luke Scully bursting over the line for the game-winning try. Jack Walsh added the conversion to bring the final whistle.
Exeter host Ulster next weekend in their final pre-season fixture before Leicester Tigers come to Sandy Park in a fortnight for the opening round of the 2024/25 Gallagher Premiership.
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Josh Hodge, 14 Paul Brown-Bampoe, 13 Ben Hammersley, 12 Zack Wimbush, 11 Olly Woodburn, 10 Harvey Skinner, 9 Sam Maunder, 1 Scott Sio, 2 Dan Frost, 3 Ehren Painter, 4 Rusi Tuima, 5 Richard Capstick, 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 8 Greg Fisilau.
Replacements: 16 Jack Yeandle, 17 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18 Josh Iosefa-Scott, 19 Jack Dunne, 20 Martin Moloney, 21 Tom Cairns, 22 Will Haydon-Wood, 23 Joe Hawkins.
Ospreys: 15 Max Nagy, 14 Luke Morgan, 13 Phil Cokanasiga, 12 Keiran Williams, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Reuben Morgan-Williams, 1 Garyn Phillips, 2 Sam Parry, 3 Matt Iorwerth-Scott, 4 James Ratti, 5 Huw Sutton, 6 Tristan Davies, 7 Jac Morgan ©, 8 Morgan Morris.
Replacements: 16 Steffan Thomas, 17, Lewis Lloyd, 18 Ethan Lewis, 19 Tom Botha, 20 Lewis Jones, 21 Justin Tipuric, 22 Harri Deaves, 23 Morgan Morse. Luke Davies, Jack Walsh, Connor Moyse, Luke Scully, Tom Florence, Iestyn Hopkins, Harri Houston.
Referee : Luke Pearce
Assistant referees: Neil Chivers and Jamie Leahy.