Jessy loving life at the Chiefs

By Mark Stevens

As Matt Jess prepares for another two years of rugby life at Sandy Park, the Exeter Chiefs winger signalled signing his new contract by insisting "I wouldn't want to be at another club".

Since arriving in Devon during the summer of 2008, the 28-year-old has quickly established himself as a key figure for the Chiefs, who this Sunday prepare to welcome visiting Saracens in the Aviva Premiership (2.15pm).

Alongside club-mate Craig Mitchell, the duo have given Exeter head coach Rob Baxter a timely boost with the news that both have agreed new deals with the club.

"I am delighted," said Jess, who is poised to make his 100th appearance for the Chiefs against Saracens. "As a player it is good to get these things done early doors, and I suppose from a coaching perspective as well.

"I have made no secret about the fact I want to stay at the club. I am here for another few years now and it's good. I can see where the club is going ambition-wise and I want to do that with Exeter, which I am doing."

Indeed, Jess is very much living the dreams he had as a young lad growing up in Cornwall, where he ignited his senior playing career with the Cornish Pirates.

"This is what I want to be doing since I was a little boy, playing Premiership rugby," said Jess. "To actually do that having come up from the Championship with Exeter has been great. It is great to have played a part in the rise we have had over the last few years, and being an integral part in the first year and then solidifying a place last year – and to start off the way I have this year is what I have wanted.

"I wouldn't want to be at another club or doing anything other than playing Premiership rugby for Exeter. It is a really good place to get up and come to work every morning. It really is a pleasure to come to work and you can't really complain.

"Devon is a lovely place, as well. My wife, Sarah, and I are very happy here and certainly feel like we are settled, and it is a good place to come to. There is a work-hard ethic that we have here and it is really good. I want to maximise the most out of my career and I am sure Exeter want to as well."

And in what has been an encouraging start to the campaign - Jess has so far scored four tries in three starts - he is keen to kick-on further, whilst at the same time praise the work put in by his team-mates, both in training and on match-days.

"It is a lot of hard work from the boys inside me, but it is nice to be on the edge of them. I am just gambling off them," said Jess.

"Our set-piece has gone well, the tries we have scored we have worked on and we are attacking the game.

"People asked questions last year about whether we were an attacking rugby team and all this, but I think we have put that to bed straight away and we are going over for tries.

"It is a massive team thing, but I am a winger, it's what I do, and I like going over scoring tries. But, fair play to the boys, the coaching staff are there telling us how to play and we are starting to show that out there on the pitch. I am sure we can do that in the next few weeks as well."