Shoemark has point to prove

Exeter Chiefs are armed to the teeth with some of the Aviva Premiership's brightest talent - and Jason Shoemark knows that the young pups are gnashing at the old guard's feet for a first-team place.

However, the wily centre is out to prove he is certainly not done yet as competition in the centres only gets stronger at Sandy Park.

Shoemark may be a New Zealand native but can consider himself an honorary West Countryman after calling Exeter home for the past four years.

He has never been far away from the thick of things but 2013 Junior World Championship winner Sam Hill has recently taken centre stage in midfield, while more experienced duo Phil Dollman and Ian Whitten are also cutting into the 33-year-old's game time.

But as much as the Chiefs' youngsters are champing at the bit to improve, Shoemark insists he is looking to do just the same.

"It's great that the Under-20 boys coming through Luke (Cowan-Dickie), Sam, Henry (Slade) are carrying on and Jack Nowell's just been outstanding, the future is really set but for now I have to make sure I push on too," he said.

"It's been a solid season, not fantastic, and it's been a tough one personally. If I get more opportunities I need to take them.

"They have not been bad performances, it's just doing the extra little bits - as a player you want to do those special things that I probably haven't done quite as much this year.

"Competition is tough with a lot of guys coming through but it's only good for the team and for me. There's no point playing rugby if you're just happy with where you're at and how you're playing and I want to contribute more."

The Chiefs have become unstuck in the Aviva Premiership of late, slipping to four defeats on the bounce and further away from a top-six place.

And according to Shoemark the devil is in the detail - their last three games have been decided by four or fewer points - if they have designs on hitting an upwards trend once again.

"In the last three Premiership games we've lost but it's been pretty tight in all of them," he added. "A few things haven't gone our way but you make your own luck in this game and we had plenty of chances to do so.

"It's not quite been happening for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean we haven't been improving as a team.

"I think holding onto the ball at crucial moments to take the pressure off is where we've let ourselves down at stages, giving up easy possession can lead to easy tries.

"The big goal of ours is to be in the top six again and we've got to keep positive and not go into our shell, we're not a 100 miles away from reaching it again."