Steenson ready for Euro test

By Mark Stevens

Gareth Steenson admits he is “excited” about being back amongst Europe’s elite as Exeter Chiefs prepare to kick-off their Champions Cup campaign against the Ospreys today (5:30pm).

Having missed out last term on the inaugural year of the new-look Champions Cup, the Devon club find themselves in a testing Pool Two which not only pits them against the Welsh region, but also Bordeaux-Begles and last season’s beaten finalists Clermont-Auvergne.

However, according to Irishman Steenson it’s just reward for a fantastic campaign last season - one in which the Chiefs recorded not only their best-ever finish in there Aviva Premiership, but also reached the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup.

“We’re looking forward to being back in the top competition of Europe,” said Steenson. “The club strived hard to be here again and now that we are, we’re going to try and make the most of it.

“For us, it’s the first time we’ve been in the Champions Cup, which is slightly different to the old competition. When the fixtures first came out, it was good to see who we got - Bordeaux we’ve never played before and we’ve never played the Ospreys at their place, so it’s nice to test yourselves against the top sides.”

With the Ospreys buoyed by the return of many of their Rugby World Cup stars, the talented playmaker is well aware of the threat posed by the Welshmen at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon.

“You only have to look at their team to see how strong it is,” warned the Dungannon-born back. “They’ve got lots of Welsh internationals back after performing very well at the World Cup and they’ve got one or two British Lions in there as well, so it’s an exciting game for us.”

That said, the Chiefs will head into the Principality brimming with confidence after a decent start to the new season. So far Rob Baxter’s side have collected three wins from four in the Premiership, the latest of which was last weekend’s 19-6 win over previously unbeaten Leicester Tigers.

Steenson collected all his side’s points in that display and he’s hoping for more of the same in Swansea, adding: “Obviously we’re pretty pleased with how we’ve gone and we were delighted to get the result and the four points against what is a very good side.

“Each week you want to perform to the best of your ability and this weekend will be no different for us. In terms of Europe, we want to try and go as far as we can and hopefully we can bring our Premiership form into the competition.

“We’ve not really set ourselves any major targets at this stage, other than to try and accumulate points as best we can and see how many bonus points we can collect, just because they’ll be crucial come the end. If we can get into the quarter-final that would be fantastic, just because we’ve never been that far before, but let’s get this weekend out of the way first and then see where we are.”