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…)
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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
Not sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
24 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to commentsThanks for that Marshy, noticed you didn't say who is gonna win it. We know who ain't gonna win it - your Crusaders outfit. They've gone from having arguably the best Super Rugby first five ever, to having a clutch of rookies. Hurricanes all the way!
1 Go to commentsGeez you really have to question the NRLs ability to produce players of quality. Its pathetic. Dont the 25mil in Aus produce enough quality womens players. Sad.
1 Go to commentsBulls fan here, and agree 100% with the conclusion (and little else) of this article. SA sides should absolutely f-off from the champs cup until we get fair scheduling, equal support for travel arrangements and home semis. You know, like all the european teams get.
24 Go to commentsI’m yet to see why Grace would be an ABs contender. He’s pedestrian and lacks the dominance required of a top flight 8.
11 Go to commentsGee my Highlanders were terrible. They have gone backwards since the start of the season. The trouble began when we left Millar behind to prep as the 10 against the Brumbies and he was disconnected from the team that came back from Aussie. We rested Patchell for that game and we blew an avalanche of ball in good attacking positions in the 1st half. Against the Rebels we seem to of gone into a pod system with forwards hanging off from the breakdown leaving Fakatava to secure our ball!
80 Go to commentsPot Kettle, the English and French teams have done it for years.
24 Go to commentsHas virtually played every minute of previous games. Back row of Li Lo Willie , Grace and Blackadder would be the 1. Crusaders issue is a very average 1st 5 who cannot run. Kicking in general play is also below par They need to put Yong Kemara in. He must have so.e talent for them to bring him down from Waikato. Hoehepa would struggle to play in so.e club sided
11 Go to commentsI hope this a good thing making all these changes!
3 Go to commentsThe Hurricanes are good, especially with a decent coach now. However, let’s be real, the Crusaders and Chiefs are clearly a good degree weaker without the players they’ve lost overseas now. The Canes lost one player. It’s also why the aussie teams ‘seem’ to be stronger.
9 Go to commentsOr you could develop your own players instead of constantly taking from the SH competition and weakening it in the process? With all the player and financial resources these unions have compared to SH countries you’d think they could manage that, or is weakening the SH comps and their national sides an added bonus? Probably.
3 Go to commentsNot so fast Aaron, we might need you in black yet lol. God knows he’d be a lot less nerve-racking than hot and (very) cold players like Perofeta. It’s really a shame Reuben Love isn’t playing 10, we’ve got enough 15 options.
4 Go to commentsAnd those from the NH still seem to be puzzled (and delighted) why NZ’s depth isn’t what it once was. Over 600 NZ players overseas, that’s insane. This sort of deal is why Super Rugby coaches have admitted they struggle now to find enough quality to fill out their squads.
6 Go to commentsArticle intéressant ! La question devrait régulièrement se poser pour les jeunes français originaires de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Wallis-et-Futuna et de Polynésie entre la Nouvelle-Zélande et la Métropole… Difficile pour la fédération française de rugby de se positionner : soit le choix est fait de dénicher les jeunes talents et de les faire venir très tôt en Métropole, au risque de les déraciner, soit on prend le risque de se les faire “piller” par les All Blacks qui, telle une araignée, essaye de récupérer tous les talents des îles du Pacifique… À la France de se défendre en développant l’aura du XV de France et des clubs français dans ses collectivités d’Outre-mer !
4 Go to commentsWrong bay. He needs to come to the REAL BAY which is Bay Of Plenty and have a crack at making the Chiefs.
4 Go to comments