Student Life #6

Flashback to a month ago when my boyfriend Patrick convinced me to head down to the Exeter fan zone and immerse myself in the Rugby World Cup. Now, four weeks on, I’ve watched Ireland beat France and lose to Argentina, seen Wales lose to South Africa and Argentina lose to Australia and, finally, New Zealand win the world cup.

Brought up a Birmingham City FC supporter with no knowledge of rugby, I’ve seen my whole outlook on the sport change under 2015’s world cup – for the better I must add.

That’s why Patrick and I headed down to Sandy Park to watch the Exeter Chiefs play against the Leicester Tigers. Although the location of the stadium may seem somewhat out of the way to many university students, who, let’s face it walk everywhere, it’s really not. Just take a train from any of the stations near the city centre – including St. Davids, Central, St Thomas, Polsloe Bridge and St James – which will take you directly to Digby & Sowton where there’s a direct path leading you to Sandy Park. Inside the ground there is unfortunately only one cash machine, so a word of advice: take some cash with you.

As I am still relatively new to rugby and the Exeter Vs Leicester game was my first experience of watching non-national teams play, I wasn’t too sure which team was likely to win. A lot of my friends from Birmingham were claiming that Leicester were bound to wipe the floor with Exeter, however it was clear the first few minutes of play that the Chiefs were on top form. The ability of Henry Slade and Jack Nowell was prominent throughout the game, their quality will surely earn them a call-up to the England National Team if they keep playing like that.

Exeter held dominance and possession throughout the first half, going into half-time at 13 – 3. When the game resumed Leicester evidently had some fight in them but couldn’t quite match the Chief’s defence and the game ended 19 – 6.
Now, I’m not a rugby analyst and I don’t claim to understand everything, or even close to everything. However, to me it seemed that Exeter weren’t quite quick enough after catching the ball inside the 22 metre line and missed a few chances for tries purely because of hesitation.

Leicester, meanwhile, were strong attackers as all of their players were evidently larger and stronger, but couldn’t quite defend well enough, often leaving gaps for the Chiefs to sneak through. Saying that, Exeter played well enough to score more than one try, yet didn’t take the chances when they came.

Overall, it was an exciting experience to watch some rugby from the stadium and be a part of the ever-passionate fans. I would highly recommend that Exeter students, even if they aren’t huge rugby fans, make a visit to Sandy Park during their time here – they do sell student tickets for a reason after all!