Exeter remove shackles to get best from Kvesic
No8 has regained his dynamism after being ‘scared’ to change game, he tells Mick Cleary
Matt Kvesic has become Matt Kvesic again this season at Exeter Chiefs, the same player who once thrived alongside Billy Vunipola in England age-grade ranks, winning numerous caps, an all-consuming back-rower, busy, involved, carrying, roaming, supporting, action-driven and influential.
Twelve months ago Kvesic, who moved to Exeter from Gloucester two seasons ago, was unable even to force his way into the Exeter
team who lost to Saracens in the Premiership final, out of kilter with the dynamic performer Rob Baxter had tried to sign from Worcester four years earlier. Now he is at the fore of Exeter’s push for honours.
Exeter have proven that they are more than the sum of their parts, the high-achieving product of a fine coaching system that draws the best from players, a quality that Saracens’ Mark Mccall has praised. Saracens may have the stardust but Exeter have a meld of talent that can trouble anyone.
Kvesic, nominally a No8 but with a licence to rove, made his reputation as a foraging openside, fast and fearless, with his head invariably in among the clatter and clash of a breakdown. But the strength became a weakness, a single-mined focus that blinded the player to other possibilities.
“I told Matt last season that he was not enough of a rugby player, that he was a more complete player when I had tried to sign him from Worcester,” Baxter said. “He had his head in every breakdown and was missing carrying opportunities or the chance to affect the game elsewhere. Matt’s all-round involvements now are different. He turned up to pre-season in amazing shape and that has enabled him to do what he has done.”
Kvesic was named in the Premiership XV of the season and shortlisted for the individual award. Exeter’s back row work as a combination and will have to do so today, to counter the obvious yet enduring threat posed by Vunipola on the charge. Kvesic is clear about what it will take to stop him.
“Head in the spokes straight away. Go nice and low. The bigger they are the harder they fall. Those one-on-one battles will be vital.”
The 27-year-old acknowledged that he had to adapt his game or be consigned to a life on the margins.
“It was about getting back to the player I’d been,” Kvesic said. “I knew I had it. It was just that I hadn’t used it, the carrying and all that, at Gloucester. The coaches have drawn it out of me. They don’t worry about mistakes if the intent is right. I was almost a bit scared.
“They have taken the shackles off. I’d put on a bit of weight, felt heavy, but this season I’d worked out a programme with the conditioners and felt way better.”
If Exeter start to rumble, the roars from the massed ranks who have made their way up from Devon will be heard.
“The underdog tag is something we like,” Kvesic said. “It suits us and can make us dangerous.”
Exeter know they will have to be at their potent best to topple the champions, but such is their spirit and communal tightness that Saracens, too, will have to be at the top of their game to prevail.