Sio keen for Chiefs to go out on a high
HAVING suffered heartache in his swansong appearance for the Brumbies, Scott Sio is determined that this summer’s Exeter leavers don’t suffer the same fate.
Sio’s 127th and final game for the Australian outfit was a 20-19 defeat to the Blues in the semi-final of Super Rugby Pacific back in June last year.
And for many of his current team-mates, this weekend’s Champions Cup semi-final clash with La Rochelle in Bordeaux will be their last opportunity to do something special in Chiefs colours.
“As there is with every club that is a transition period, I was in a similar position to them with the Brumbies last year when it was time to move on,” the prop said.
“So I can understand what these players must be feeling and I am hoping to send these guys out as winners, as are the young guys here who see them as their heroes.”
Sio, who won the last of his 74 caps for Australia shortly before his arrival in Devon in October, will have a big role to play if the Chiefs are to dethrone the defending European champions.
With the giant frame of his former Wallabies team-mate Will Skelton in the La Rochelle pack, the 31-year-old doesn’t shy away from the fact that the game will be won and lost upfront.
Sio, however, is a biggame player having appeared in the final of the
Dulin; Leyds, Seuteni, Favre, Rhule; Hastoy, Kerr-Barlow; Wardi, Bourgarit, Atonio, Sazy, Skelton, Dillane, Botia, Alldritt (c)
Lespiaucq, Sclavi, Colombe Reazel, Lavault, Boudehent, Bourdeau, Berjon, Thomas
Wyatt; Nowell (c), Slade, O’Brien, Woodburn; J Simmonds, Becconsall; Sio, Frost, Street, Kirsten, Gray, Vermeulen, Tshiunza, S Simmonds
Yeandle, Abuladze, Iosefa-Scott, Davis, Ewers, Townsend, Skinner, Hogg 2015 World Cup and the quarter-final four years later and is up for the big test that lays ahead.
“I think it is a huge step-up, the stadium is quite big, it holds 42,000, so the boys are going to have to get their heads around that, the noise and the atmosphere that will be built,” he said.
“But this is where you want to be at this time of year – playing semi-final rugby against a team like La Rochelle in France.
“They are the reigning champions at the end of the day. Leinster (beaten finalists in 2022) were pretty hot last year and they were the only team to stump them there.
“They have been in the top four in France for a couple of years now, back-to-back, and they have a plethora of players playing for the national side. There is my old mate Willy Skelton, who is doing quite well and he is a handful in himself.
“There’s no hiding away from it, it’s pretty obvious their strength is upfront and they have got some pretty electric backs that can play off the back of it.
“We are under no illusions that it is super important that we lay the foundations up front.”
Sio, who scored a try in the Round of 16 epic against Montpellier that went to extra-time, has settled in well in the south west of England.
“It’s been great, the team have been very welcoming and the lads are pretty sound and it is quite a nice part of England, down here on the south-west coast. I was saying to a couple of boys earlier that, ironically, this is the closest I have lived to the beach even though I grew up in Australia.
“I was looking forward to it before and everything I have experience so far has been great.”
Whilst Sio insists he has not retired from Test rugby, he knows that moving to Exeter will likely rule him out of the World Cup.
For him, it was a price worth paying. “I was at the stage of my career where I needed a change. You only get a finite amount of time to make the most out of professional rugby and I guess I knew I was at the back end of my career.
“We get to do what we love; we are very blessed in that regard and to do it in another country and engulf yourself over here was a big draw for me.
“It helped that I was coming to a quality team in Exeter Chiefs. I wanted to grow as a person and as a player and I knew leaving Australia was a big part of it.
“I am very grateful for the opportunities I got to represent my country and if that’s it, then so be it, I’ll support and get behind the boys at the World Cup.”