Steenson hoping for some Clermont pointers

EXETER find Saracens on their path to Premiership glory once more but talisman Gareth Steenson reckons they could not be in a better place on the back of a record end to the regular season.

The Chiefs go into next week’s semi-final, a remake of last year’s final, on the back of eight consecutive bonus-point wins which ensured the clash was to be played at Sandy Park.

Add to that the experience from last year’s final at Twickenham and Steenson is full of confidence.

“We’re a better team than we were last year and it would be fantastic for the club to be in the final again,” he said.

“There are no bonuspoints to chase in the semi-finals and to be honest I’ll be happy with a onepoint win.

“We’ve worked really hard over the past couple of months and we couldn’t have done much more picking up 40 points from a possible 40 in the last eight games.

“Our reward is a home semi-final and that could play in our favour with the home fans and the tricky weather conditions here at times.

“We’re a different team compared to last year’s final in terms of being a year older as a squad and having that experience of big games.

“As players, we now expect to be competing for trophies and that makes a huge difference to your confidence.

“But we also know we have arguably the best team in Europe coming to Sandy Park so we won’t get carried away. We’ll have to be at our best to beat them.”

On dealing with the pressure Saracens are renowned for putting on the opposition, fly-half, Steenson added: “They’re not a team that give you much space to work with but we’ll try to combat that as much as we can with different tactics.

“If I need to kick behind them I will but if there are opportunities to attack elsewhere like around the ruck then we’ll do that.

“We know what our strengths are and we’ll look at how Clermont play against them in the Champions Cup final. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from them.”