'Sunday morning, I was a bit of a mess': How Tony Rowe celebrated Exeter's breathtaking European success
Exeter owner Tony Rowe has admitted the celebrations that followed last Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final win over Toulouse at Sandy Park took their toll, leaving the telecoms entrepreneur feeling more than worse for wear the following morning.
The win by the Chiefs was the first time they have reached a European final and they are now on course for a Premiership and Champions Cup double as they are also in the semi-finals of the league after topping the table in regulation-season play.
Exeter will have a home semi-final in the Premiership on the weekend of October 10 and will then face Racing in the European showpiece on October 17 in Bristol.
That appearance will mark the high point in the long Rowe investment in Exeter, funding which guided the club from the lower leagues in England right to the top of the sport, and he wasn’t letting last Saturday’s breakthrough pass without recognition.
Speaking to The Rugby Pod following the defeat of Toulouse, Rowe explained his emotions and how his body felt after a celebratory Exeter beer or two at Sandy Park. “Rough, rough,” he quipped. “It was a bit of an anti-climax as you can imagine. The thing was it was really fantastic but only when I went back to the changing room with the lads.
There's just no stopping @ExeterChiefs from there ?
A string of powerful forward phases before @HarryWilliams91 burrows over for his first of the day ?
Will the Exeter forwards have too much for @racing92 in the #HeinekenChampionsCup final? ? pic.twitter.com/30d1fPbCFJ
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) September 28, 2020
“Then I had to leave them and someone had smuggled some beer in disguised as water. I went back upstairs because we are only allowed a couple of people to the game, my wife was there and that. I was feeling a bit lonely. I buzzed down to Rob Baxter and said, ‘Look mate, why don’t you come upstairs with the coaches?’ Wrong thing to do. Rob couldn’t because he was going home. But all the coaches descended on us and drunk us dry. Sunday morning, I was a bit of a mess.”
No fans were allowed into Sandy Park to watch the European semi-final and it pains Rowe that these restrictions will continue throughout October. “Everybody knows what my ambition, the club’s ambition and Rob’s ambition is and we are within touching distance but there was no one there to share it.
“The way they televise it now when you’re sat at home watching the game you get a bit of an atmosphere because they double it [the sound] but when you’re actually in the ground it is a hollow silence. It’s a shame because we have got some fantastic supporters at Exeter and they just couldn’t be there on the day. We have just got to be grateful I suppose that we are still here, still alive, and we have just got to get through this horrible thing [the pandemic].
“On Saturday there was about half a dozen trying to make the noise for 14,000 people… we made as much noise as we could and that is probably why I needed a lot of medicine afterwards,” he said, adding how he took great pride that many of Exeter’s team had come through the club’s academy.
“I’m pretty sure on Saturday there were nine starting lads that had come through our academy structure and that is brilliant. A lot of players are very transient and spend two years here and two years there, but I’d like to think a lot of our homegrown boys will stay.
“It means in time you will amass more of your homegrown talent. Rob and I share an ambition to one day see a Premiership team we put on the field of all homegrown players and we’re 60 per cent of the way there at the moment.”
"Big games of rugby, they are like boxing matches"
– A beaming Rob Baxter hails Exeter's progress to a first European final
https://t.co/2tHziRPRTJ— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 26, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments