Exeter heroes seek international respect

Premiership champions are irked by the idea they have overachieved in their swift rise, says Tom Cary

Hardworking. Honest. A team greater than the sum of its parts. It seems no matter how many games the Exeter Chiefs win – on a run of nine straight in all competitions – or how many titles they acquire, the perception endures that they are good, solid professionals but without the stardust liberally sprinkled over the Premiership’s more fashionable clubs.

The English champions are regarded as a shining beacon, a community club, a stunning success story, having risen through the divisions and brought youngsters through their ranks, but they are punching above their weight.

Understandably, it rankles with some of them. “The way Exeter have gone up through the leagues it still feels as if people perceive us as having gone above and beyond what we should be doing,” says full-back Phil Dollman. “Us lads who are here day in, day out, see it slightly differently. We see ourselves as up there with the top players in the league.

“It’s up to us to change those perceptions by winning and competing every year for titles. Winning in Europe is a big deal.”

Exeter have a huge opportunity in the next week to make that point forcefully. They have made a good start to this Champions Cup campaign, winning at home against Glasgow and, more significantly, away at Montpellier.

The Premiership champions now host three-time European champions Leinster this evening before travelling to the Aviva Stadium next Saturday for the return. It promises to be a fascinating double-header.

Victory over half the Ireland team – including five British and Irish Lions in Johnny Sexton, Robbie Henshaw, Sean O’Brien, Tadhg Furlong and Jack McGrath – would not only set Exeter up to qualify from the group stages in Europe for only the second time in their history but could help alter those perceptions in the minds of the rugby public and also, perhaps, in the minds of international rugby coaches.

Dollman is in many ways typical of an Exeter player who performs at a high level weekly for his club but continues to be overlooked by his country. The nearest he got was when he was called up by Wales for the summer tour of

Tonga and

Samoa, only to pull out with a knee injury.

Sitting in the stands at Sandy Park alongside Exeter’s fly-half Gareth Steenson (uncapped by Ireland or England, for whom he has qualified on residency grounds) and wing Olly Woodburn (who says he has “never even spoken to Eddie Jones”), Dollman questions why Exeter’s players are continually overlooked.

“A lot of the guys are playing well here so I don’t see how their age, how they look or how they are perceived, should affect whether they get international recognition,” he says. “They’re all playing good rugby.

To me, they could quite easily make that step up to international rugby and do well. “I wouldn’t say I watch [Wales] games and think, ‘I should be out there’, but I’ve always said I feel like I’d like that opportunity. I’d like to know how it would go for me in that situation. But I’m not going to sit there and be all glum about it. I’ll just focus on the day-to-day stuff.”

Steenson, 33, is in a slightly different situation. Having played age-group rugby for Ireland – alongside Sexton, his opposite number today – the Dungannon-born fly-half has played his entire professional career in England.

With Ireland’s policy of picking players playing for Ireland’s provinces, he has no great expectation of a call-up at this stage of his career but is hoping to be proved wrong. “It’s probably something I’ll look back on and – a bit the same as what Phil is saying – I’m a little bit disappointed,” he says. “I’d have wanted the opportunity to be part of a squad. At the very least go over and train and see how I competed. The fire still burns.”

Steenson takes vicarious pleasure, though, in seeing younger Exeter players called up, Sam Simmonds being the most recent example.

He says that Jack Nowell’s Lions call-up was “almost as proud a day for the club as it was for him”, adding that there are plenty of Exeter players, such as Woodburn, on the cusp. “It’s incredible he hasn’t been called up yet,” he adds.

A run to the latter stages of the Champions Cup is the next logical step in Exeter’s evolution. It is what the club craves and why these two games against Leinster are so huge.

“It’s amazing to think that after these two games we could be arguably in the driving seat in this pool,” says Steenson. “We know what it feels like to reach the knockout stages, but we want to do that consistently. We want to be reaching the latter stages and competing in the play-offs and the semi-finals in the Premiership.

“That creates a winning culture. It’s hard to leave guys out of international sides when they are doing that.”