USW men’s rugby 1st 19-57 Exeter University 5th

Lance Kruger opened and closed the scoring on a blustery afternoon in south Wales, recording a hat-trick as Exeter romped to a nine-try victory.

The visitors started the game on the front foot and almost took an instant lead, only for Ollie Miall’s marauding run to be halted by a last-ditch Sam Hayman tackle.

Exeter continued to heap pressure on their hosts and took the lead in the third minute when George Hopkinson broke free from the ruck to start a fast-paced attack and offloaded skilfully to Sam Peeris who in turn found Kruger in space with a delicate chip.

The away side doubled their advantage after eight minutes as Ollie Rendell battered his way through USW’s backline and broke free to score in plenty of space.

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It was 0-17 on the quarter of an hour mark when the ever-dangerous Hopkinson went over to score and Peeris kicked the extra points at the third time of asking.

Rendell found himself on the scoresheet again five minutes later with a sensational run from inside his own 22, breaking a number of tackles to score a fantastic solo try. Peeris cleaned up with the extras to pile more misery on USW and increase Exeter’s advantage to 24.

It went from bad to worse for the hosts when Exeter made it 29 in the 29th minute. Hugo Ormerod found himself in space on the wing and finished off a nice team move before Peeris found his target from the tee to bring the score up to 0-31.

USW finally got on the board five minutes before half time when Rusiate Macacca forced his way over to reduce the arrears. Sam Hayman kicked the extras to bring the home side back into the game.

Their joy was short-lived, however, as Exeter quickly replied through Louis Burns on the stroke of half-time. Peeris kicked the extras, leaving his team 7-38 up at the break.

After a scrappy start to the second half, USW began to stamp their authority on the game and scored their second try of the afternoon on the hour mark. Substitute Ed Hogan converted from some sustained home pressure to reduce the deficit.

It would be reduced further just a minute later when Phil Papworth intercepted a stray Exeter pass and raced free to score his side’s third try of the game, before kicking the extras himself.

USW had established a clear route back into the game but were pegged back once again, this time by Exeter substitute Freddie Powell, who came off the bench and straight onto the scoresheet. Peeris kicked between the posts to take the away side onto 45 points.

Lance Kruger scored his second try of the game with 10 minutes remaining, picking up where he had left off in the opening stages to bring Exeter onto 50 points.

He wasn’t done there, though, and had his hat-trick with the very last action of the game. He danced away from a tiring USW back line and scored under the posts before Peeris converted for the sixth time to bring the scores up to 19-57.

After a difficult afternoon, USW will be hoping to kick-start their BUCS Western Tier 1 season when they travel across the Severn to face Bath University 3s next Wednesday, 16th October.