'I wasn't performing, I wasn't in the right headspace to lead'
Exeter talisman Joe Simmonds won’t lie. He’d love the Chiefs to do another magical Gallagher Premiership/Heineken Champions Cup double, something he believes they are capable of achieving now that the current season is reaching its business end. It’s just that he never wants to experience again the stress and strain that went hand-in-hand 17 months ago with their behind closed doors rugby double at the height of the pandemic.
The success was wonderful, no doubt, an epic tale now colourfully recorded for posterity in the BT Sport documentary, Devon Double. However, living with the fear of a virus test going wrong and having your dreams dashed of playing in the biggest of big club matches was quite the ordeal, something he never wants to endure again.
Just ask Racing and Wasps, the teams that Exeter ultimately defeated in those European and domestic deciders. These French and English rivals each had their preparations for the respective finals compromised by positive test results, a panic that the Chiefs somehow managed to avoid. “It was scary to be fair,” admitted Simmonds to RugbyPass over an exclusive Zoom call that began with reflections on the anxious October 2020 shakedown which eventually spelt glory for Exeter.
“One positive test and you are out of the finals and definitely close to the time every single player was in lockdown. If we had to go to the shop you’d send your missus down there to get it just to make sure we didn’t meet anyone or came into contact with anyone who had it. It was a scary time definitely.
“No one has been involved in a European final before so to be hit down by covid and miss that game against Racing would have been heartbreaking. Yeah, it was sketchy times. Even when we were training we were cutting things short because we didn’t want to be around each other for too long because we had 50 players in the one meeting room so it was short, sharp training but that brought the best out in us. We were training at an intensity that probably most other teams weren’t. It definitely paid off.”
Domestic drama is back on the menu! ?
One of the most unpredictable seasons in living memory continues with…
• Three live matches, including The Showdown 2
• @ExeterChiefs are next up on #RugbyStories with “Devon Double”
• Conclude the weekend with #RugbyTonight— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) March 24, 2022
Most certainly it did. Doubles were supposed to be something that only the elite ever exclusively did. Your Toulouse, your Saracens, your Leinster and so on. Not the little old unfashionable Chiefs, who only finally began to rub shoulders in top tier English rugby when promoted first the first time from the Championship in 2010. That particular ‘small beer achievement’ left the then 13-year-old Simmonds in awe, convincing the impressionable teen to grow up and become a professional rugby player with Exeter.
“In the back of my mind, I knew that Exeter was big but I was from Teignmouth so I always supported my local club, but I started taking rugby proper serious and went to (first leg) final at Sandy Park when they came up from the Championship. Just being involved in that atmosphere, I thought this is exactly what I want to do. That was the moment for me, watching (Gareth) Steenson celebrate and stuff like that was a huge moment for me and that is what drove me to want that.”
It’s incredible to think that a little over ten years later, Simmonds was now the on-pitch orchestrator – not a wide-eyed teenager on the terraces – guiding Exeter around Ashton Gate and Twickenham and on to glory where he even had the honour of lifting the trophies with co-skipper Jack Yeandle. “I’d never really captained any side growing up, school, football, rugby, whatever,” he explained.
“To have the opportunity to captain the team in the Premiership and European final was huge. I’d grown up looking at it and watching Jonny Wilkinson lift trophies, watched Owen Farrell lift trophies. These are huge international players and I’m just Joe from Teignmouth that had the opportunity to win. I’d the likes of Sladey (Henry Slade), (Luke) Cowan-Dickie, (Jack) Nowell, (Stuart) Hogg, Jonny Gray who are established internationals in the same squad as me. Even just to take the pitch with those guys is good enough but to have the opportunity to lift the trophy with Jack Yeandle was something that just couldn’t be put into words, to be honest with you.
“You’d think it would be easy for me to talk about but it’s hard to put into words, it was that good. It was just a weird year to be involved with covid and no fans and not knowing if games were going to be played. For us the first few months in lockdown it was just making sure we were in the right physical and mental state to get back and play these big games. We all had one goal and that was to win trophies and the work done in lockdown and off the pitch was hugely rewarding on the pitch come knockout rugby time.”
Simmonds has all the Exeter finals memorabilia to hand, which is good to hear given that the walls providing the backdrop to the room from where he was speaking to RugbyPass were starkly bare and very white. His jersey from his first Premiership game is on show in his kitchen downstairs and his October 2020 stash will eventually also feature prominently. “I’ve got the Europe and Premiership side by side in a few photos and the medals are in there. I need to put that up on the wall but I have got that all sorted in my gaming room as I call it.”
Those objects, though, don’t commemorate his favourite moment from that entire year, the European semi-final win over the powerhouse Toulouse. “That was huge,” he said, recalling the fabulously sunny Devon afternoon when the French aristocrats were ambushed and taken out of the reckoning. “They were probably the favourites to win the competition, they had such big, heavyweight players and (Antoine) Dupont was playing his best rugby.
“It helped us a little, I’d say. It took the pressure off us a little bit. Although we were playing at home, Toulouse were the favourites and to come off a game that was so hard – I have never been involved in Test rugby so I don’t know what it is like but the international boys said it was up there with the hardest games they had played – so to come out on top in a game like that was huge. As soon as we won that game I kind of knew in the back of my head we were going to be hard to stop come final time against Racing.”
The real joy of winning the trophies in Bristol and London was the exuberant bus rides home, a 90-minute adventure the first Saturday followed by twice that duration the following weekend. “That was probably the only moment we could properly celebrate because as soon as we got home we were sent home because you couldn’t interact with people or be around over six people or whatever it was,” explained Simmonds, reflecting on the shackling circumstances of life in England at the time.
“We definitely made the most of it whether it was in the changing room having beers, drinking out of the cup or whatever. But yeah, as soon as we got on the bus it was just nice to have the music on. We had this cool bus, we’d the disco lights on and stuff like that. But there are no other stories other than that, just sharing a few good cold beers together.”
Those cold beers haven’t been as sweet since then. Simmonds even found himself benched for a spell earlier this season when Rob Baxter opted to give young Harvey Skinner a run in the Exeter team. “It probably hasn’t been the season I expected,” he candidly admitted. “I thought I was going to come off the back of winning a Prem final and come into the season raring to go.
“But the Prem final hit me hard. I have been in finals now where I have lost a few and won a few and losing is a bad feeling. I probably put too much pressure on myself coming into the start of the season and I wasn’t performing how I know I should be. I thought it was the right call for the coaches to bench me because I wasn’t performing, I wasn’t in the right headspace to lead the team and definitely having the experience of that has pushed me on. I never want to experience it again so making sure to perform week in week out is huge.”
It wasn't that long ago when the hype was for Joe Simmonds to be in the England squad, but he currently can't even get his Exeter start…#England #Chiefs #GallagherPrem #EXEvLIR
https://t.co/hzuN9OHk3y— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 21, 2021
What helped regain his mojo? “Just talking to people. I’m still the same bloke as I was winning the double the year before. I just think putting pressure on myself didn’t help me at all. I was trying too hard in games and just overthinking things too much and that doesn’t get me anywhere whereas now I just free myself up, I’m enjoying my rugby again and I’m in a good environment here at Exeter. I would say the enjoyment thing has definitely come back.
“Sometimes we probably put a bit too much pressure on ourselves and we probably expect things to happen. That is probably what led us to lose that Premiership final last year, that we turned up and we ourselves expected to win that but it’s down to the hard work, down to who can play the best rugby on the day and we just have to make sure we gave got the mindset to do that.”
After sitting back and watching this Friday night’s BT Sport premiere of Devon Double, Simmonds will go head-to-head on Sunday for Exeter against Leicester’s George Ford, one of the out-halves ahead of him in the England queue. First-time Test selection is something the 25-year-old Simmonds eagerly aspires to, his appetite further whetted by the long-awaited return this season of his brother Sam to the fold under Eddie Jones.
“Definitely. It is everyone’s dream to play for your country and it is definitely in the back of my mind but again I just have to be consistent, I have to perform and I have to be the best ten in the Premiership to be playing for England. If I can do that then I put my hand up for being chosen.
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“You always want to play the best players and the in-form players and Ford is definitely one of those at the moment. He has had loads of England caps and for me, it’s just a good battle, I can see where I am as a player and it definitely spurs me on a little bit to make sure I perform – but I never read too much into it. I have got to make sure I’m consistent and perform well for Exeter and that we can get the win. It’s a fixture we have been looking forward to for a while.”
We’ll finish with the inevitable – his relationship with Sam, his older brother by two years and 39 days. “We were competitive because we just loved sport and looking back at it now it brought the best out of both of us. Our parents probably hated it because we were always fighting but to be involved in the same team as Sam and winning these trophies is something that is hugely proud for us both.
“Our parents talk a lot to us about it and tell us how proud they are but it’s probably something I will look back on after my career and feel we were lucky to be where we were. It helped with Sam being just two years older than me, we were always into football but then he choose the route of rugby and he was doing pretty well and in my mind, I didn’t want to be left behind. I knew he was getting a contract for Exeter and we were always pretty competitive anyway, but that pushed me on a bit more.
“It’s brilliant (to see him back with England). I might be a bit biased but for me, he has been in the in-form player for the last three years I would say. Week in week out he performs. I thought he wasn’t getting the praise he should have done but now he is slowly getting there and although the results haven’t gone well for England, I personally think he has been really good and I am definitely excited to get him back this weekend for Leicester.
“We’d love to do that [another double]. We have put ourselves in a good position to do that. We know we have to win every game in the Premiership and we are in the knockout stage in Europe. It’s a season we are all looking forward to finishing.”
Our History, Our Future … pic.twitter.com/TL6k45F6Wc
— Exeter Chiefs (@ExeterChiefs) January 27, 2022
QUICKFIRE SIMMONDS
Funniest moment on a rugby pitch: “Looking back at when I flinched and missed, didn’t have the opportunity to kick (the conversion) against Northampton. They just kicked the ball straight out and that was a funny moment when I look back at it a little bit.”
Silliest thing ever bought: “I didn’t buy it but I have got a new dog and my missus’ parents bought a ball gun that you just shoot. It’s a massive gun and you have to walk around shooting it. That is probably the silliest thing.”
What annoys you most: “These are hard questions. My brother. It’s different now to be fair but when we lived together, because we worked together and then went home together, it was just too much. And his face just annoys me.”
Most embarrassing moment: “Not many people know this but it was in a game, the semi-final against Sale last year. The time was up and I was about five metres away from touch and all I had to do was kick the ball out and I celebrated so hard that I kicked the ball so far in the air that it didn’t go out and they had about five more minutes of the ball. That was probably my most embarrassing moment. I got a lot of s**t for it.
Best present ever received: “I’d say my dog. It’s a little Blue Staffy. He’s a year now, a nutter. He keeps me on my toes.”
Guilty pleasure: “If you were to ask my strength and conditioning coach it would probably be chocolate and sweets. I’m into Haribo tangfastics and I like Kinder chocolate. That is my guilty pleasure. No, not the Kinder toy, more the adult version ones.”
- Watch Rugby Stories, a new documentary series airing every Friday on BT Sport around the thirteen clubs in the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership. The series continues with ‘Devon Double’ the story of Exeter, on Friday, March 24, at 10pm on BT Sport 2. For more information visit bt.com/sport
Comments on RugbyPass
Very unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
2 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
10 Go to commentsSimple reason for wanting him back. Robertson wants him as captain. Otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering chasing him. Not enough reason to come back just to mentor.
10 Go to commentsI had not considered this topic like this at all, brilliant read. I had been looking at his record at the Waratahs and thought it odd the Crusaders appointed him, then couple that with all that experience and talent departing and boom. They’ve got some great talent developing though, and in all honesty I don’t think anyone would be over confident taking them on in a playoff match, no matter how poor the first half of their season was. I think they can pull a game out of their ass when it counts.
2 Go to commentsNot a bad list but not Porecki and not Donaldson. Not because they are Tahs, or Ex Tahs, they are just not good enough. Edmed should be ahead. Far more potential. Wilson should be 8 and Valentini 6. Wilson needs to be told by his father and his coach, stop bloody running in to brick wall defence. You’re not playing under the genius Thorn any more. He’s a fantastic angle runner. The young new 8 from the Brumbies looks really good too. The Lonegrans are just too small for international rugby as is Paisami, as is Hamish Stewart at 12. Both great at Super Rugby level. Stewart could have been a great 10 if not for Brad Thorn. Uru should be there and so should Tupou. Tupou just needs good Australian coaching which he hasn’t been getting. I don’t think Schmidt will excite him.
3 Go to commentsIf he wants to come back then he should. He will be a major asset to the younger locks and could easily be played as an impact player off the bench coming on in the last 30. He is fit, strong and capable and has all the experience to make up for any loss in physical prowess. He could also be brought back with a view to coaching within the structures one day. Duane Vermeulen played until he was 37 or 38. He is now a roaming coach within the South African coaching structures. He was valuable in the last world cup and has been a major influence on Jasper Wiese and other young players which has helped and accelerated their development and growth. Whitelock could do the exact same thing for NZ
10 Go to commentsBrett Excellent words… finally someone (other than DC) has noted that Hanigan is very hard and very good at doing what Backrow should do… his performance via the Drua sauna was quite daunting for those on the other side… very high tackle count… carries with good end result… constant threat to make a good 20-25 meters with those long legs… providing his mass effectively to crunching the Drua pack… Finally he is returning to quality form… way to much injury time over the last 2 years… smart-strong-competent in his skills… caught every lineout throw aimed at him and delivered clean pass to whoever was down below… and he worked hard for the whole 80 minutes… Ned has to be in the top 5 for backrow honors… He knows what is required as he has been there before…
20 Go to commentsI think Sam Whitelock should not touch a return with a bargepole. He went out on a high, playing in the RWC Final. He would be coming back into a team that will be weaker than last years, and might even be struggling to win games, especially against the Boks. Stay in France, enjoy another year with Pau, playing alongside his brother.
10 Go to commentsRyan Coxon has been very impressive considering he was signed by WF as injury cover whilst Uru has been a standout for QR, surprised neither of those mentioned
3 Go to commentsIt’s the massive value he brings with regard team culture/values, preparation, etc. Can’t buy that. I’m hoping to see the young locks get their chance in the big games though.
10 Go to commentsAll good, Gregor, except that you neglected to mention Sam Darry amongst that talented pool of locks. In fact, given Hannah’s inexperience and the fact that Holland won’t be eligible until next year, Lord and Darry might be the frontrunners this year, to join Barrett, Tuipoluto, Va’ii and possibly Whitelock. In fact there might be room for all of them if Barrett played 6 (like Ollie Chessum).
10 Go to comments