Exeter Chiefs U18 secured 5^th place in the U18 Academy Premiership with an 11-6 victory over Gloucester.

The two sides met courtesy of finishing third in the Southern and Northern Conferences of the U18 Premiership league stage, and as such were first on the field at Allianz Park for the U18 Premiership finals day, with 2^nd placed Leicester Tigers and Bath meeting after, and Northampton Saints and Saracens meeting in the final game of the day, the U18 Premiership final.

Chiefs took the victory through two second half Tom Putt penalties and a first half try through number 8 Declan Williams.

It was a scrappy affair, a product perhaps of the rain and overcast conditions, or possibly the struggle that both sides faced in getting themselves up for the challenge after both went into the final game of the league season with a realistic chance of finishing in top spot in their leagues, and taking place in today’s final.

Exeter dominated the early exchanges but it took until the 26^th minute for the deadlock to be broken, with Declan Matthews engineering some space down the right hand flank to go barreling over in the corner.

Gloucester did up their game in response but there were still far too many errors from both sides, however a strong Gloucester attack saw fly half Clayton Dee land a penalty to send the teams in at half time with Exeter just 5-3 in front.

It was Gloucester who were then first to get the scoreboard ticking in the second half, with Dee landing a second penalty to put the Cherry & Whites 6-5 ahead.

The game then moved into something of a stalemate for the next twenty minutes until substitute Tom Putt landed his two excellent penalties to give Exeter their eventually final 11-6 lead.

It was a deserved victory for Exeter, who by and large had the better of the game, there were glimpses at time of the exciting futures that some of these players have, perhaps none more so than Gloucester outside centre Ollie Thorley, who is surely destined for great things, indeed the Cheltenham Collrge pupil has already represented the 1^st XV on a number of occasions.

Full Time: Gloucester 6-11 Exeter Chiefs

Photos from the game can be seen on our Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/FifteenRugby

Scorers:

Gloucester – Pens, Dee x2

Exeter – Try, Matthews; Pens, Putt x 2

Teams:

Gloucester:

1 Alex Serville,  2 Joe Mullis,  3 Guy Toye,  4 Tyler Jerrum,  5 Alex Graig,  6 Harry Lloyd-Jones,  7 Tobin Reynolds,  8 Hanco Germishuys;  9 Harry Bassett,  10 Clayton Dee,  11 Terrance Barbarinsa,  12 Elliot Creed,  13 Ollie Thorely,  14 Mason Tonks,  15 Robbie Forbes.

Replacements:  16 Henry Walker,  17 Will Haly,  18 Will Safe,  19 – N/A   20 Eric White,  21 Miles Churcher,  212 George Clair,  23 Tom Seabrook.

Exeter Chiefs:

15 Ethan Tyler 14 Brad Janes  13 Harry Strong  12 Noah Sixton  11 Harrison Cully 10 James McFarlane  9 Jack Maunder  1 Ollie Dawe  2 Luke Trewhella  3(17) Billy Keast  4 Kieran Westlake  5 Connor O’Shaughnessy  6 Josh Caulfield  7 Nat Bayet  8 Declan Matthews.

Replacements: 16 Aiden Taylor  17(3) Jack Stanley  18 Liam Hilliar  19 Angus Brown  20 Toby Papp 21 Tom Putt  22 Sam Fox  23 Aaron Chapman.