Nowell focused on new season ahead
By Mark Stevens
17/7/18
Exeter Chiefs star Jack Nowell says he and his team-mates are ready to ‘go again’ as the countdown to the new season continues apace.
With just a month until the Chiefs kick-off their pre-season campaign with an away trip to the Cornish Pirates on August 17, so the intensity in and around training has cranked up significantly in the past week.
Whilst the majority of Rob Baxter’s squad are tackling training both at Sandy Park and on the beach at Exmouth, Cornishman Nowell is one of a handful of first-team stars who are currently confined to the rehab wing following summer surgery on damaged ankle ligaments he sustained in the New Year’s Eve clash at home to Leicester Tigers.
Although the England and British Lions back battled his way through the remainder of the season, including featuring in a third successive Premiership Final at Twickenham in May, the need to get the problem sorted was imperative and meant he missed England’s summer tour to South Africa.
The operation, however, went well and already Nowell is well advanced into his rehab programme and is targeting a swift return to competitive action.
“It’s going very well,” said Nowell, who also during the off season became a father for the first time after partner Zoe gave birth to a daughter, Nori. “My operation actually got put back a week because my daughter was born the day I was due to have surgery, so I had it the week after instead.
“Now, we’re ticking along nicely and I’ve got the physios looking after me. For the first couple of weeks it was a bit tough, I was in a cast and I wasn’t actually allowed to do anything, but it kind of really gave me the chance to sit down, relax and take my mind off everything.
“I’ve now had a few weeks of training and I’m back into it. I’m really looking forward to getting the protective boot off and then getting back fit again and giving it a good go. I am doing everything I can to try and be available for that first game, but we’ll just have to wait and see how things progress.”
With Nowell’s hometown club the Pirates first up in pre-season, followed quickly with fixtures against Cardiff Blues (home, Aug 18) and Munster (away, August 24), things are building nicely for the Chiefs ahead of their Gallagher Premiership opener against visiting Leicester Tigers on September 1.
The visit of the East Midlanders is followed a week later with a trip to Wasps (Sept 8) and then successive games against Sale Sharks (Sept 15), Newcastle Falcons (Sept 21) and Worcester Warriors (Sept 29) in a testing first month of action.
It’s a start to the season that excites Nowell, who added: “You are never going to have an easy start in the Premiership. I think we saw how tight it was last year and how hard it is now. It is always good to have one of the top teams come to Sandy Park early doors, so it will be a good indicator of where we are as a squad as well.
“The first game is always exciting and we need to do better than we did last year, let’s put it that way!”
The Chiefs were undone right at the death in last season’s seasonal opener at Gloucester when Kiwi full-back Jason Woodward raced over for a match-winning score with the clock in the red.
Leicester, though, will prove just as tough a nut to crack this time round and Nowell is aware the Chiefs will have to be on their game if they are to start the new campaign on a high note.
“We don’t really focus too much on other teams at this stage of the season,” he continued. “The boys are so focused on what we are doing here at the club and how hard we are all working for each other, and I think that is the most important thing going into these opening fixtures.”
And with the Chiefs keen to reclaim their Premiership crown having surrendered it to Saracens back in May, Nowell believes the Devon club are in a strong position to once again attack the new season with gusto.
“If we compare ourselves to two years ago, when we lost to Sarries in the first final, the look of the boys in the changing rooms after the game in May was much different. We were all absolutely gutted and I’ve never looked at our squad and seen us in that position before. It hurt us a lot.
“Already this year you can really feel a sense of urgency from the boys. We are ready to go again. Even though we’ve just started pre-season, the boys are training hard and they’re really flying into it. We’re excited for the games to come.”
