Exeter's Premiership dominance will be very hard to break... and it's all thanks to Saracens
You can usually find out a little bit more about your club side during the Six Nations. Shorn of key men, clubs can either step up or wilt.
There are a couple in that latter category. Gloucester and Saints have both taken big steps backwards since the northern hemisphere’s premier international competition came calling: three losses from three for both those top four pretenders.
The opposite is true of Exeter. Despite the Six Nations, Exeter have got stronger: their latest 57-7 victory against third-placed Saints was a ringing endorsement of their Premiership campaign.
It is tricky to look at things through a Northampton prism at the moment, but is there anyone who believes there is someone in the top flight who can live with Chiefs?
The combination of power and accuracy is devastating. Time and again, they punched holes in the Saints midfield and flooded every breakdown. And while they might not have the flamboyance of say, Bristol, Exeter’s dirty work is so good it should come with its own polythene bag.
(Continue reading below…)
Officials in the firing line after England’s win over Ireland
It was a late first-half one-two which did the damage last weekend. Up to the 34th minute, Saints were still on their feet. They were struggling with the sheer physicality of a Chiefs side whose different type of punches always land heavy, but they were still fighting.
However, Saints headed into half-time 22-0 down, glancing sideways as if to be sure that was really the score, and emerged fog-headed into a second period that blew them away.
It is, in principle, a power game. Short-range missile after short-range missile for the Saints to deal with; big man following big man down furrows almost pre-cut in the Sandy Park pitch. Each and every one of them lurching for extra yards or, when it offered itself, the try line.
Jonny Hill, Elvis Taione and Jannes Kirsten all clambered through Northampton bodies to dot down in the first half. The energy it sapped from the opposition was clear to see as the second half opened up.
Take on the day like Jannes Kirsten and Ben Moon ? @ExeterChiefs showing the power available in their ranks against @SaintsRugby
Can they hold onto top spot? ?
Highlights ? https://t.co/HEOdt594yn pic.twitter.com/fMo7EH6cLF
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) February 25, 2020
If the first 40 represented neat bodywork, the second was all hook and uppercut. Saints heaved difficult, rasping breaths beneath cracked ribs, unable to move their defenders into position quickly enough.
Tom O’Flaherty started to scamper, Tom Hendrickson marauded down corridors and then Sam Simmonds opened up his gait late on. All the point-scoring damage possible because of the first half pounding.
It would be churlish to single out one man. Too many play a part when Exeter are excellent, but you have to wonder where and how Rob Baxter found Jacques Vermeulen.
At the beginning of the season, few would have thought the Chiefs back row was one that needed improving. Yet, Vermeulen has brought something different. Well, maybe not different: the same, just better.
His defence coach might disagree. https://t.co/l4EzCdxhdC
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 23, 2020
He plagued the visitors’ breakdown. His hands were everywhere: reaching, groping, spoiling. He won battles which he shouldn’t have been competing and turned over Saints ball with consistent ease.
It says a lot that Exeter haven’t normally got space for someone like Hendrickson. And it says even more that when he gets a chance – as he did on Sunday afternoon – he played as he did. Time and again, he was fed ball with a channel to attack.
It’s not a terribly complicated idea but it isn’t easy to organise yourself with the speed and accuracy of the Chiefs. Each one of the squad are ready to go” so deep and detailed is the preparation, whichever combination of player Baxter daubs on his teamsheet, the message and mission remain the same.
The guess is that this will be Exeter’s Premiership at a canter. Sale may impress, perhaps with players back Saints will shine again, Bristol’s free-flowing style can catch the eye, but no one will be able to match Exeter’s all-court game.
Gone before his timehttps://t.co/yXgSxRI7hs
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 25, 2020
And yet, most importantly, this has been a long time coming and critically, this is excellence forged over time in no small part owing to a word that only produces scowls in Premiership circles.
However it came about, however heinous the crime, the overspending at Saracens has engendered this Devon cream. Spurred on by the false line drawn by the north Londoners, Baxter’s men dug further and deeper than perhaps they would have done without it.
No one has cried longer and harder about the injustice than those down in Devon but Exeter are this good because of Saracens, not in spite of them.
Saracens’ financial doping has a glorious byproduct: an Exeter side capable of overcoming the illegally oversized and current Premiership champions. Having trailed the pacesetter for so long, Chiefs can now run free, their body stronger for the fight, however unfair it might have been.
It’s a curious situation. One that will sit as uncomfortably with many as the tomahawk chop itself. Exeter’s dominance in the Premiership over the next few years will be very hard to break. And that is thanks, in no small part, to the team they love to hate.
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Comments on RugbyPass
The value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
3 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
10 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
54 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
10 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
54 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
3 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
54 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
51 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
54 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
54 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. All the Kiwis sticking up for this unprincipled individual because they can't accept justified criticism, he has zero credibility or integrity. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
54 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
54 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
2 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to comments