Danny Milton’s side were second best for most of the contest, but showed tremendous character throughout. It was the Green and White hoops who drew first blood in this semi-final.
A ruck right on the Met try line allowed Sam Higginson to get over the line, with Alec Lloyd-Seed converting. Just minutes later Met conceded another try after being unable to gain possession from the home side.
An Exeter lineout on the left found its way to Jordan Bond on the right wing who had the simple task of jogging it over the line and Lloyd-Seed successfully dispatched the conversion. The Archers conceded a third try courtesy of Will Yarnell which was converted by Lloyd-Seed for his third in the opening 25 minutes to make it 21-0.
Met, eventually, found their way onto the scoreboard after some slick passing from a scrum found Will Rigg who burst through the home defense and got over the line. The conversion was unsuccessful which left the score at 21-5 at half time with Met needing to find some inspiration for the second.
At the start of the second half the pendulum of momentum turned in the way of Met after a penalty try was awarded to them. Soon after, Met scored again after a pile up on the try line saw them bring it to a 21-19 game.
But the match swung quickly back in the favour of Exeter straight from the restart. Exeter’s Arthur Thomas charged down a Cardiff Met kick and managed to chase the bouncing ball and touch it down over the line.
The conversion was dispatched leaving Met with a nine-point deficit for the remaining 20 minutes. The home side soon drew their lead out further after Dan John found a gap in the Met defence and found a way over the line making it 33-19.
After a conversion and a penalty straight from the restart by Lloyd-Seed, the home side made it a 19-point deficit at 38-19. Another Exeter penalty pushed their score above 40, if something was to happen for Met, it needed to happen very quickly.
Brad Denty pushed the Met score to 24 after he forced his way over the line despite a diving tackle from the Exeter defensive line. With the conversion added, it was a 41-26 score going into the final ten with still no clear winner heading into the final.
Roma Zheng closed the gap even more after he found himself with room to power through Exeter from a scrum. A quick conversion closed the gap to 41-33 to Exeter for the final five.
Despite a relentless onslaught of attack from Cardiff Met, it was Exeter who will make their way to the BUCS Super Rugby final with a final penalty making the end score 44-33.
