'More to come from Chiefs' says Dennis
By Mark Stevens
13/10/19
Dave Dennis insists there is still ‘work to do’ for Exeter Chiefs ahead of the new Gallagher Premiership season, which kicks-off this Saturday against visiting Harlequins at Sandy Park (3pm).
The Devon club warmed up for their league opener by sealing themselves a home semi-final in this season’s Premiership Rugby Cup following their 42-19 victory over Bristol Bears.
With the new Premiership season starting later due to the current Rugby World Cup, the domestic cup competition has provided the Chiefs with the perfect foundation from which to build their seasonal assault.
Victories against Bath, Worcester Warriors and Bristol Bears ensured the Chiefs not only topped Pool C after the final round of qualification, but that they will have home advantage against Harlequins when the competition resumes again in the New Year.
Exeter’s latest success came courtesy of a powerful home display, which yielded six tries for Rob Baxter’s side. Jonny Hill, Jack Maunder, Harry Williams and Sam Simmonds ensured the try bonus point was secured by half-time, after which Dennis and young prop Marcus Street added further scores in the second half.
Having missed the win at Worcester the previous week, Aussie international Dennis marked his recall to the starting line-up by producing a man-of-the-match display against the Bears.
“It’s a good win for us and sets up nicely for next week,” said the 33-year-old forward. “We talked before the game that if we could get the win, get the bonus point, then we had the chance of getting a home semi-final. As a club, we want to be chasing trophies and this now gives us an opportunity in February to try and win that first trophy of the season.”
In what a dominant display for much of the contest from the Chiefs, Dennis says it’s important he and his team-mates kick on further, using this coming week to get themselves fully up to speed for the visit of Paul Gustard’s Quins’ squad.
“It all starts to pick up now in terms of intensity going into the Premiership,” explained Dennis. “Of course it’s nice to roll into the Harlequins game with a bit of momentum, but there is still lots of work to do.
“We knew Bristol would challenge us, which they did, and they scored a couple of good tries. Equally, I thought we played very well, especially in the first half, then we probably knocked off a little bit defensively in the second half, but then we kept pushing with our line-speed, came over the top of them, and we got the result in the end.”