'It's a bit of a weird one having to play Northampton again... there will be a bit of chess here and there'
Matt Kvesic caught RugbyPass on the hop the other day, ringing before the agreed interview time. His reason? Some afternoon shut-eye was needed to help get ready for Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership semi-final.
“We’re ahead of schedule,” he shrugged apologetically. “I’ll be asleep at four o’clock. I just haven’t been sleeping very well so I just need to catch up, that’s all. Nothing bad. It’s all good. Definitely, it [sleep] is important all the time. Just for your recovery and stuff like that. Just make sure you’re feeling fresh, not just physically but mentally.”
Kvesic is as busy as a bee just now, his prowess rightly acclaimed by his inclusion in the Premiership 2018/19 Dream Team unveiled this week and his nomination on the six-strong shortlist for the player of the year award won by Danny Cipriani.
Eddie Jones mightn’t agree. It’s still May 2016 since he was last capped by England. But the 27-year-old back row senses his game has come on a tonne this term, encouraging progress reflective in the way he breezily reviews his past nine months.
“It has been a good, fun season. I’ve been pretty happy with how I have played. I have gone back more to how I played at Worcester where I carried a bit more. I have had a bit more of an all-round game as opposed to having that tag of a breakdown nuisance. I have had a little more freedom to have a crack, play with a smile on my face.
Your team of the year ?
Hard to pick just one XV from all the fantastic performances in the #GallagherPrem ?
But here is your @btsport Dream team ?glistening with star-quality ?#PremRugbyAwards pic.twitter.com/kTP3xYhyiq
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) May 22, 2019
“You have peaks and troughs but this year has been one of the most enjoyable seasons I have had for a while. It has been a bit like no-pressure rugby where they have just said, ‘Go out and have a crack, enjoy yourself and we can review what happens after that’. That has been really good.”
It’s curious Kvesic’s long-ago stint at Worcester has cropped up in conversation. Not since 2013 has Sixways been his home, but that was where he first encountered Rob Baxter.
Exeter made a pitch at that time for Kvesic’s services, but he rebuffed them for Gloucester and only said yes at the second time of asking in summer 2017. Even now, the unorthodox manner of Baxter’s initial approach six years ago hasn’t been forgotten.
“It was when I left Worcester quite a while ago, that was the first time I spoke to Rob,” he said, harking back to a juncture when he had just turned 21 and was coming off the back of the busiest season yet in his then fledgling career.
“It was a very different pitch than other coaches. It wasn’t, ‘This is what the club does, this is what we do’. He basically went through a couple of my games, watched some clips and said basically, ‘Look, we like what you do, this is what you do well and this is what we think we can work on, we’re not sure about that’.
“It was very different and quite refreshing. At the time, the move to go to Gloucester was right but obviously hindsight is a wonderful thing. But there we are.”
Big thanks to @ExeterChiefsSC. You guys make it special for us all week in & week out, home and away! Let’s all get excited for this week ? https://t.co/UdJDdriXxQ
— Matthew Kvesic (@mattkvesic) May 19, 2019
Baxter’s fingerprints are all over the Chiefs, the now giant of a club he took from the nether regions of the Championship and turned into a Premiership title-winning outfit. Having admired this work from afar, Kvesic is enjoying seeing first-hand the way the canny coach goes about his business.
“Everyone expected them to come up and probably head back down, but the way they approached the league back then was refreshing. It was really exciting to watch them play and they have developed their game into what it its now.
“Top of the table last year, top of table again this year, early home semi-final qualification, all that sort of stuff. It’s just hard work put in week in, week out.
“In the grand scheme of things it has happened in a short space off time. I know it has been nine years (since Exeter were first promoted), but in rugby that is quite a short period and the way they have managed to sustain performance in the last few years is pretty impressive.
“The beauty is he is very level-headed, so there is not very many ups and downs. He doesn’t lose his rag, doesn’t get too excited. As rugby players that is what you want. You want to know where you stand. There is a time and a place for a kick up the bum and a pat on the back, but all the coaches here are very level headed, quite pragmatic about everything. That is quite important. We’re all on the same page, not going up and down like the rollercoaster ride.
“It’s a pretty relaxed club and we have approached this week like any other. That’s important, not to make too big a deal out of what the occasion is otherwise you can create nerves that wouldn’t normally be there. It has been pretty chilled out, smiles on our faces. We’re just looking forward to it.”
So much so that Kvesic – along with Alex Cuthbert and Ollie Devoto – took time out midweek to participate in a Sandy Park training session with participants of HITZ, Premiership Rugby’s sport for change programme.
“I got stepped by a few kids, burned on the outside a few times, and it was good fun,” he joked. “I really enjoy that sort of stuff, that connection (they have) with the club, it’s beneficial for them. They are kids who have struggled in school or have not necessarily helped themselves all the time.
“Rugby prides itself on its discipline, its laws, its rules and the way it handles itself and that is what HITZ does with the kids, installing through rugby those values and trying to push that into their lives a little bit.”
https://twitter.com/LandRoverRugby/status/1131229452061614080
Turning back two Exeter, semi-final Saturday will be a touch weird for them. Chiefs must go head-to-head with Northampton, whom they trounced 40-21 only last Saturday. Back-to-back meetings are usually the sole preserve of the Champions Cup every December, not something that crops up in the Premiership.
Having beaten Saints comprehensively, there might be fear complacency could creep in. However, Exeter’s recent run – defeats to Wasps and Saracens either side of a scratchy win over Harlequins – should ensure nothing gets taken for granted from one Saturday to the next.
“It’s a bit of a weird one, no two ways about it. It’s strange having to play Northampton again. We have reviewed what they did, what they didn’t do, what we feel we can work on, what they will think we can work on. It’s a bit of chess here and there, but generally it’s about making sure we do our basics to the best of our ability.
“They will probably have some plays and have looked at things we maybe showed in the last game, so you’re sort of preparing for things you’re not too sure about. But at the end of the day it’s just another game. Yes, it’s a semi-final, it’s knock-out rugby, but ultimately we’re back at home again, playing the same team, and hopefully we can bang in a good performance.
“Form doesn’t disappear overnight. We’re a good team, we know we’re a good team, we play some good rugby. That was the big thing we were re-iterating: we had sort of gone away away from what we did well and were low of confidence.
“Maybe confidence is the wrong word. Maybe more frustration. It creeps in and it becomes a ‘We’re not playing our best, why aren’t we playing our best?’ Or we try and fix things that aren’t there, or try and do things we don’t need to do.
Chiefs TV – Rob Baxter pre SemiFinal Saints https://t.co/VQOlXB7CbE via @YouTube
— Exeter Chiefs (@ExeterChiefs) May 22, 2019
“That does knock your confidence a bit if you’re not playing as well as you can, but it wasn’t panic stations or anything, more frustration that we knew we had a lot more in the tank than we delivered over the last few weeks or so… but we have fixed that for this weekend.”
Having missed last year’s decider, Kvesic would love nothing better than to revel in a fairytale finish to the season. “It would be huge (to win the title). Every rugby player want to top the table and win the Premiership.
“It goes without saying. I’m the same and I’m lucky to be a small cog in a pretty well oiled machine all year. It would be a massive honour. To win would be really nice. Fingers crossed. We have a big job this weekend and then anything can happen in a final.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
I knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
103 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
103 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
103 Go to commentsHo hum.
103 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
103 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
103 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
103 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
103 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
103 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
103 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
103 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
103 Go to commentsI'm happy for the people of SA to get a second WC. And I mean that. I was very disappointed with this man's “stand on the hand” incident with Josh Van Der Flyer (Ireland). Ireland's downfall in the last WC was they did not rotate their first 15 as the head coach probably should have. That said, I'm happy for SA and genuinely hope it lifts the mood in their country. Ireland did beat them in the first match of the tournament. And before the trolls start trolling ….. please don't bother. Etzbeth said recently that the Irish players said after the match “see you in the final”…..this was actually wishing the SA team the best of luck in the rest, the Irish team were not dismissing the AB’s. This is what Etzbeth was implying. But he was wrong. I no longer live in Ireland. But I hope to see them lift that cup before I pass. Anyway, congratulations SA. 👍
12 Go to commentsMore bloody click bait. Dan Carter has said absolutely nothing. As he should do. Poor journalism again from a site that should know better
9 Go to commentsOh god please help these loosers get over it!!!! You lost. Doesn't matter how many times you dummies are gonna analyse the game, you still lost and we are still Rygby World Champions….get over it, you lost.
103 Go to commentsThe next Willie le Roux. SA are made not to use him.
3 Go to commentsDan has always been as controversial as tea with milk so we were never going to get any definitive answer. So DMac for the win.
9 Go to comments