Simmonds praises fellow Chiefs

By Mark Stevens

Sam Simmonds was full of praise for his Exeter Chiefs team-mates after he led them through to the Singha Premiership Rugby Finals night.

Up against defending champions Gloucester, Bath and London Irish in Group B of the tournament, the youthful Chiefs produced an impressive showing to advance - alongside Gloucester - to next Friday's main event at the Twickenham Stoop.

Although undone 36-5 by the Cherry & Whites in their opening game at Kingsholm, the Chiefs rallied valiantly to overcome Bath 26-10 and then see off London Irish emphatically 43-0 in their final game.

Back-row forward Simmonds, who had featured for the Devon club in the same competition 12 months earlier, was the stand-out performer on the night for Ricky Pellow's side, leading by example in his role as captain of the Chiefs side.

Afterwards, a delighted Simmonds gave a glowing verdict on the night's activities, saying: "It is a massive achievement, I think we are only the second Exeter side to do it in the last few years and I am really happy for the boys and for me as captain.

"It was the same result as last year really, we had a tough game against Gloucester first and then we really came out against Bath and showed how we can play and then changed it from last year and then really put a big performance in against Irish.

"I think as a young group of boys we just wanted to come in and show what Exeter are all about really and really excel and show everyone here in front of a big crowd just what we can do and I think we did that.

"We have got massive confidence. We won two out of three games tonight and we've seen the other clubs and their teams in the other groups. They are packed with a few stars but we won't look too far into that, we'll keep it within us and see what we can do next Friday.”

In last year's tournament, the Chiefs narrowly missed out on a spot in the final after finishing third behind Gloucester and London Irish but this time they got their revenge.

Indeed, they will be joined at Twickenham Stoop by Gloucester who won all of their games convincingly to earn the chance to retain their crown.

Simmonds says he anything can happen in the final and is excited to see the team's youngsters make further progress.

"Not many of the boys get the chance to play on TV at 18 or 19 years old and in front of a pretty much packed out Kingsholm it doesn't get much bigger really,” he added. "We know how we can play, we've beaten two big sides and we can beat others when we are on our game and hopefully it will be another big occasion for Exeter.

"I've certainly not achieved this before, last year was a different story and hopefully this can push my case as a player and that goes for all the team and the qualities everyone brings. The coaches were really pleased, this doesn't happen every year for us so they told us to enjoy next week, if we win, we win, but if we don't then we can be proud of what we've achieved before."

Meanwhile, Chiefs supporters wanting to get further into the Sevens vibe will be heartened to know that the European Grand Prix Sevens Series will be returning to Sandy Park again next summer.

Exeter played host to the final leg of this year's series, which was won by France, and organisers are already promising that next year's event will be even bigger and better.

Running alongside the European GP Series will be the South West Rugby 7s tournament, details of which will be announced in the not too distant future via all of the club's and Sandy Park's media outlets.