Hepher out to sting Wasps again

[break]

By Rob Cole
7/4/2016

Exeter Chiefs may be the new kids on the block in the Champions Cup quarter-finals, the only team among the eight who haven't yet been to the final, but they do have some vital experience to call on from their boot room.

Backs coach Ali Hepher knows exactly what it takes to go all the way in European club rugby's top tournament having helped Northampton Saints beat Munster at Twickenham Stadium in the 2000 European Cup final.

This week all the memories of reaching the final and helping a team that contained such shining stars as England

World Cup winners Matt Dawson, Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson, Samoan legend Pat Lam, Springbok prop idol Garry Pagel, Argentinean bruiser Federico Mendez and Wales and British & Irish Lions centre Allan Bateman have come flooding back for the 41-year-old.

"They were great days. The crowds were building every year in the European Cup and it has become a fantastic competition," said Hepher.

"To get into a squad that was continually improving under Ian McGeechan was really exciting. We had finished second in the league in 1998/99 and winning the European Cup was probably the culmination of three or four years of building.

"I remember going into pre-season training in the summer of 1999 to meet new coach John Steele for the first time on the day after Manchester United had won the European Champions Cup. I told him I didn't see any reason why we couldn't do the same as them."

Some prophecy from the young outside half! The Saints were drawn in the same pool at Grenoble, Edinburgh and Neath for their first season in the top flight.

There are a number of parallels between the Saints experience and that of the Chiefs. Both graduated into the European Cup from the Championship, both teams slipped under the radar into the knock-out stages and both teams face Wasps in the quarter-finals.

"My first league game for the Saints was at West Hartlepool. McGeechan had just come into the club, e won the game, but were relegated," recalled Hepher.

"In meant we were in the old Second Division for the 1995/96 season, but we built our foundations from there. We had a couple of seasons in the Challenge Cup and then got into the European Cup for the first time in 1999/2000.

"It was exciting to go and play in places like Grenoble and Edinburgh - it gave a different feel from playing the same teams year in, year out. In the amateur era, there was always an away trip to Dublin as a jolly during the Six Nations, but never a trip where the result mattered," said Hepher.

"We did well in the pool and were right on form and difficult to handle on the away days in Edinburgh and Neath. I remember the game at The Gnoll against Neath because I scored 29 points.

"Matt Dawson was supposed to be kicking but he got a migrane before kick-off. I didn't miss anything that day - I kicked six penalties and three conversions and crept over for a try. Then I nearly missed the bus home because I couldn't give a sample in the drug test.

"We got a home quarter-final and beat Wasps before heading to the Madejski Stadium to face Llanelli in the semi-final. That was an intense game in which we got ahead, let them back into it and had to rely on a late Paul Grayson kick to win it after Ian Boobyer had given away a crazy penalty - fair play to Grays for slotting that one when we needed it."

That victory over the Llanelli set-up a final against a Munster side that would develop into one of the mightiest forces in the European club game over the next decade. By his own admission, Hepher barely gave his opponents a second thought, even though he and Dom Malone were pitted against what would become one of the greatest half-back pairings in world rugby history in Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara.

"We didn't know the opposition anywhere near as well then as we do these days with all the analysis. I just went into the final against Munster thinking we were going to be good enough to win and not considering the quality of the opposition," admitted Hepher.

"We knew it was going to be the biggest occasion of our careers, but we felt quite comfortable and there was a 'no fear' element to our game. In past finals with the Saints there had been a real fear of losing, rather than an attitude of going out to try to win.

"Both Dom and I wanted to go out and attack the game and the coaches backed us. We didn't build it up into too big an occasion and we went in with an attacking mind-set.

"Munster were a young side on their way up at the time. We had a very settled team in which everyone knew their roles.

"Garry Pagel was absolutely tearing things up at the scrum and he gave us a hard edge working alongside Federico Mendez and Mattie Stewart in the front row. We were a talented side, but we needed something extra and Garry provided that.

"Tim Rodber had been driving the club for a decade and then he had Pat Lam coming in to add to the leadership. Winning the European Cup at Twickenham was the best moment in my playing career, hands down.

"I look back on it with a smile, especially as a lot of people probably wouldn't know I'd won it. It was a great experience that came at the end of a lot of hard work."

Now all his efforts are geared to helping the Chiefs continue their remarkable rise from winning the Championship in 2010 to win the LV= Cup in 2014 and now pushing for the greatest prize in European club rugby.

"We know we are capable of winning any game of rugby and that puts us in the frame to win trophies. That has built over the years, from reaching the Challenge Cup quarter-finals in our first year to playing for three seasons in the Champions Cup," added Hepher.

"Playing against sides like Toulon, Leinster and Clermont has knocked us on and improved us. I thought we'd missed our chance this year after a really poor showing at the Ospreys when we got things a little bit wrong.

"But that experience did us no harm and our home form helped to send us through in what ended up being the closest pool of all time. It was impossible to keep tabs on it in the end because of the three-way tie.

"We knew we could go through ahead of the Ospreys because of the match points, but then it got really confusing with Bordeaux-Begles coming into the equation. Now we are here, there is no reason why we can't win it.

"From day one in the Premiership, Rob Baxter said we were going to attack the competition and attack teams. It's the best way to win trophies.

"For too long there has been an emphasis on building up power in the gym. You need to be able to play rugby as well as out-power teams - after all, rugby is a game of evasion more than collision. I

"It's all about creating and finding space - and then taking it. That's how the game has to be played and so we will go after it and attack the competition and see if we are good enough - if we aren't good enough then we will re-group and be better for the experience next season.

"We know Wasps have good ball carriers across the park and have some dynamic players out wide. We are similar in the way we approach the game and play, so we will go there and try to attack the game and score tries."

If he an help to sting Wasps for a second time in the quarter-finals then there could be a nostalgic semi-final clash with his former club Northampton Saints in the semis. As Hepher says, anything now seems possible for the Chiefs.