Steeno ready for the big kick-off
By Hannah Percival
29/8/17
Exeter Chiefs fly-half Gareth Steenson says he and his team-mates cannot wait to kick-off the new Aviva Premiership season at Gloucester on Friday night (7:45pm).
The long-serving Irishman sets his sights firmly on defending his team’s title as the build-up for the local derby game heightens.
With the pre-season drawing to a close last Friday with a narrow 21-20 defeat at Cardiff Blues, Steenson is now focusing his sights on this week’s seasonal opener at Kingsholm.
“The result at the end was a little disappointing, but ultimately it’s probably been a really good thing for us,” said Steenson. “From the last few pre-seasons, we’ve won all our games and we haven’t started very well in any of them. If we take the lessons out of that going forward and put that into Friday night, then hopefully it will be a good thing.”
Having come face-to-face against Gloucester many times in the past, Steenson – who is celebrating ten years this season with the Devon club – knows a clash with the Cherry & Whites is never an easy fixture.
“The way we play and the way they play, they like to put the ball through their hands and look to try and score tries – very similar to ourselves,” added Steenson. “Their forward pack as well are very dominant, so it’s a big challenge for us. It’s one, however, which we are really excited about. We know it’s a local derby, a Friday night at Kingsholm, and it’s a pretty special place to play so we’re looking forward to it.”
Keen to pick up from where they left off last season – the Chiefs are currently 17 games unbeaten in the top flight – Steenson acknowledges that there will be a different kind of pressure on himself and his team-mates following their title success back in May.
“It’s a good challenge for us because it’s something brand new,” said Steenson. “We always like to pride ourselves on taking on new challenges and this is definitely a new one. It’s something to be excited about, not something we need to be burdened by. Looking at it, we have got to embrace the fact that we are the champions and put our best foot forward.
“We have got to attack every game because teams are going to be looking at us differently. They’ll be coming at us a bit harder maybe than they did in the past. For us, we have got to get our head round that, we want to be the aggressors, we want to go out there and attack teams, not sit back and wait to be attacked. That’s the mindset we will be taking into Friday night.”
